There are anything between 20,000 and 30,000 bee species in the
world. Britain has 254 species, 24 of them are bumblebees. It is
estimated that a third of all human food depends on the pollination
services of bees!

Buff-tailed Bumblebee
Bumblebees
Bumblebees are social and live in colonies. When fully developed,
each colony comprises a single, egg-laying female, the queen, and
a number of sterile females called workers.
Female nesting bees are able to find their way back to their nests
by memorizing landmarks and through sun-compass orientation. A female
bee memorizes the position of the sun when she leaves her nest.
Using this and an inbuilt clock to compensate for the sun's movements
she is able to navigate back to her nest, even if the sun is obscured
by clouds.
After a female has found a suitable nest site, she makes several
orientation flights. These have a characteristic looping from side
to side around the nest entrance. She is memorising landmarks close
to the entrance, such as plants or stones. Later she broadens the
sweep of her loops as she memorizes more distant landmarks, such
as an isolated tree or shape of a hill. Experiments have shown that
some British garden bumblebees can return to a nest from distances
over 6km.
Bumblebees have a pollen basket in a specially adapted hind leg
where the bee builds up a dense mass of pollen, slightly moistened
with nectar. The bumblebee then transports this back to the nest,
where she deposits the pollen into a wax storage pot using her middle
legs.
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There are six bumblebee species which are widespread and common
in gardens in Britain, central and northern Europe. These are: Bombus
terrestris (Buff-tailed Bumblebee) and its close relative B. lucorum
(Common White-tailed Bumblebee), which are the two most likely species
to use your nest; B. pratorum (Early Bumblebee) and B. lapidarius
(Common Red-tailed Bumblebee); B. pascuorum (Common Ginger Bumblebee)
and B. hortorum (Common Long-tongued Bumblebee). In central and
northern Europe, a seventh species may occur. This is B. hypnorum,
a gingery species with a distinct white tail. In North America there
are about 46 species of Bumblebees that have to date been persuaded
to nest in boxes similar to this. The commonest are: Bombus terricola,
B. fraternus, B. nevadensis, B. fervidus and B. pennsylvanicus.

Small Garden Bumblebee
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