Al Fredericksson

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Red-tailed Bumble Bee

A colony of red-tailed bumble bees occupied a nest box in a neighbour’s garden this year (2010).

In the hot weather, a group of bees spent a lot of time and energy fanning the nest to cool it.

Several times during the afternoon, bees removed grubs from the nest. Some they dropped, others were carried away. One grub, which was clearly dead, was simply ‘smeared’ beneath the entrance hole.

From time to time, a wasp went in and out of the nest.

A few of the bees had yellow hair around the face; I believe these are males.

1 Comment

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 George Pilkington // Aug 22, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    Excellent photographs, some bees are tasked with removing dead bodies, I wonder if these larvae were all dead or dying? Did you notice if the wasp carried away any larvae?

    Cheers George