Bumble bees are keystone species that help pollinate many flowers. Their diet consists of nectar and pollen that they collect from flowers before storing into wax cells for later consumption.
If you come across a stranded bumblebee, offering sugar water may provide it with some energy boost but should not replace its normal diet. This should give it temporary energy boost but shouldn’t replace its diet completely.
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Nectar
Bumblebees gather nectar as food for themselves and their young, as well as transport pollen from male flowers to female flowers – an essential step for plant reproduction that is why tomatoes, squash, berries and cranberries rely heavily on bees to pollinate them.
Bumblebee queens prioritize protein consumption through eating lots of pollen while their workers focus on nectar collection. Workers use long tongues and special lips to access sweet, sugary nectar while queens must tap their feet on flowers to extract pollen for future eggs in their nest. Bumblebee queens may visit various garden plants and wildflowers as they collect pollen.
Pollen
Bumblebee diet consists of nectar and pollen. They use this food source as fuel for their flights as well as to obtain the essential nutrition they require for survival.
Bumblebee wings beat up to 130 times per second, creating vibrations that help plants release pollen – this process is known as buzz pollination.
Gardeners should encourage bumblebees as excellent pollinators by planting plenty of flowering plants, while remembering never to feed bees directly with sugar water; rather, sugar water should only ever be offered as a last resort in open sheltered spaces and only as needed when an individual bee appears weak or exhausted.
Eggs
Bumblebees are social insects that live in colonies ruled by a queen bee. Additionally, they forage for sources of protein to feed their colonies – this explains why you will often see them taking up residence in bird boxes or garden sheds.
Bumblebee diets typically consist of nectar and pollen collected from flowers to feed their young. Bumblebees will also feed on honeydew produced by aphids and scale insects that acts like syrup; unlike honeybees though, bumblebees do not store up their honey for winter storage purposes.
Larvae
Bumble bee larvae like other insects rely on nectar and pollen as sources of sustenance; queen bumble bees consume honey as an additional strength-building measure before laying eggs.
The queen carries pollen in a corbicula basket on her back legs, and when foraging she uses her wings to beat 130 times per second to vibrate flowers and dislodge pollen via buzz pollination – an effective process.
Pollen pollination helps plants reproduce by fertilizing female parts with pollen from male flowers, helping plants reproduce successfully. A successful bumble bee colony needs an abundant supply of flowering plants from early spring through late summer in order to thrive and survive.
Drones
Many garden flowers benefit from being pollinated by bumblebees, such as foxglove, viper’s bugloss and lupins. Old-fashioned roses and thyme are among the many others they pollinate as well as various herbs such as borage and salvia.
Bumblebees feed on nectar and pollen for protein intake. Unlike honeybees, however, bumblebees don’t store their honey; rather they collect small quantities to see them through winter.
Before the queen bumblebee can find a suitable nest site, she goes out and gathers pollen in bulk, eating it while sipping energy-rich nectar from flowers that she will later regurgitate for feeding to her drones (male bees) before laying her eggs.
Queens
As soon as a queen bumblebee emerges from winter hibernation, she must immediately find food to fulfill its energy requirements and build her colony. To meet these goals, early flowers with nectar and pollen provides much-needed nutrition.
Have you noticed strange bumblebees lingering around your garden, flying slowly before diving down holes or nests to search for nest sites where she will lay her first eggs? Queen bumblebees differ from workers as they consume pollen as a source of protein which triggers their ovaries to start producing eggs; nectar provides energy boost.
