First bumblebee seen collecting pollen this year.

Yesterday I spotted, for the first time this yea,r a bumblebee gathering pollen. It was a Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) collecting pollen from Pulmonaria growing in  my garden. Her baskets were packed full of blue pollen - whether this is from the Pulmonaria or another source I am not sure.

Bees collecting pollen indicates that she has established a nest and is provisioning it with food for her first brood. Unlike the domesticated honey bee whose young are entirely reared by worker bees, bumblebee queens raise their first brood of workers themselves. Once these workers (all female) are old enough they will take over all care of the brood from the queen and look after the queen too. The rest of the queens life will then be primarily devoted to egg laying.

Tree Bumblebees colonised England in 2001 and had reached Staffordshire in 2009. I saw my first one in 2010 nectaring on wildlfowers growing along the disused railway line in Endon. They are now relatively common garden visitors.

The first photo below was taken in a previous year and is of a Red-tailed Bumblebee (B. lapidarius) gathering pollen from chives. The second is of a Tree Bumblebee.