Bumblebees in Tandem

[JackintheGreen]

I saw two bumblebees in the garden this morning flying in tandem. Clearly it looked like mating, but I thought they mated in the autumn with only the mated queens surviving the winter. I guess that's wrong?

[Gardenlifer]

That's an interesting observation. I bought a hive of live bumblebees this year on the internet and have been watching it and the bees behaviour closely in my garden.

About 3 or 4 weeks after the hive was set up, some new queens and males emerged. They spent a few days sitting in the hive but then flew off for (I assume) their mating flights.

I always thought that once the new queens had emerged from a nest, the original queen and the workers all died leaving the new queens to overwinter and start nest building the following year. However, my original nest is still very active and increasing in size. So, from what I have seen it looks like new queens can be produced throughout the year and what you saw could well be the mating flight.

[nightshade]

Thats interesting, I miss all the honey bees and a bit of research shows that the local apiarists have retired so there are no hives near me now and I was toying with the idea of having a hive here. What sort of costs were involved in setting up?

[Gardenlifer]

I bought my bumblebee nest with a wooden habitat box that it fitted in to. It's a Beepol and was about £130 which certainly isn't cheap. However, I can keep using the habitat each year and just buy a new nest to go in to it.

[eucera]

There are several species which produce a generation of sexuals in May viz. Bombus pratorum and B. hypnorum. These will mate and new colonies will be founded, producing a second generation

wrt Commercially reared colonies: I assume these are B. terrestris of some sort. I hope these are the native British subspecies B. terrestris audax, because if they are not, then releasing them into the wild is actually a contravention of the 1981 Wildlife & Countryside Act. The overwhelming majority of commercially available B. terrestris are either B. terrestris terrestris (the mainland European colour form with white-tailed queens) or the Anatolian B. terrestris dalmatinus (which is winter-active in Turkey and the near East.

[JackintheGreen]

Originally Posted by eucera

There are several species which produce a generation of sexuals in May viz. Bombus pratorum and B. hypnorum. These will mate and new colonies will be founded, producing a second generation

wrt Commercially reared colonies: I assume these are B. terrestris of some sort. I hope these are the native British subspecies B. terrestris audax, because if they are not, then releasing them into the wild is actually a contravention of the 1981 Wildlife & Countryside Act. The overwhelming majority of commercially available B. terrestris are either B. terrestris terrestris (the mainland European colour form with white-tailed queens) or the Anatolian B. terrestris dalmatinus (which is winter-active in Turkey and the near East.

Thanks for the info. A mating pair they certainly were then. I couldn't identify species.

Reading up about Beepol, because it sounded interesting, the bees are B. terrestris audax.

[Gardenlifer]

Originally Posted by eucera

There are several species which produce a generation of sexuals in May viz. Bombus pratorum and B. hypnorum. These will mate and new colonies will be founded, producing a second generation

wrt Commercially reared colonies: I assume these are B. terrestris of some sort. I hope these are the native British subspecies B. terrestris audax, because if they are not, then releasing them into the wild is actually a contravention of the 1981 Wildlife & Countryside Act. The overwhelming majority of commercially available B. terrestris are either B. terrestris terrestris (the mainland European colour form with white-tailed queens) or the Anatolian B. terrestris dalmatinus (which is winter-active in Turkey and the near East.

Yes, as JackintheGreen has said, they are the British bumblebee species Bombus terrestris audax in the Beepol.

I was hoping to encourage new queens that emerge from the hive into empty nest boxes but I saw the research results from Stirling University last week that concluded the empty boxes didn't work. Looks like I'll be re-stocking my wooden hive with a fresh Beepol next year then.

[Matt Smith]

Originally Posted by eucera

There are several species which produce a generation of sexuals in May viz. Bombus pratorum and B. hypnorum. These will mate and new colonies will be founded, producing a second generation.

Lots of Bombus pratorum males out today near Reading, together with a few B.hypnorum males and one B.jonellus. Males of the cuckoo bumblebee B. (Psithyrus) sylvestris are also about, these are iniquilines of B.pratorum so they will be looking to mate so the new queens can try to take over 2nd brood B.pratorum nests.

[Gardenlifer]

Is it usual for B. terrestris to have more than one generation per year?

[JRsbugs]

Could these have been syrphid flies mating? I have seen those flying in tandem but not bees, although I have only seen B. lapidarius and Osmia rufa in copulation and the males seem to spend a long time sat on top of the queen or female. I've also seen Andrena haemorrhoa mating twice, they do that on leaves of shrubs.

Janet