Busy bumblebees

Bumblebees are large, hairy bees , generally black with varying degrees of yellow banding. There are many different species of them. Common bumblebees include garden, buff-tailed, red-tailed, white-tailed and field bumblebees. Bumblebees are social insects, living in colonies of up to 200 workers. Queens hibernate underground during the winter, emerging in spring to find suitable nest sites – for example, abandoned mouse holes. Each queen builds a nest of dried grasses and then lays about a dozen eggs that hatch into female workers. Female workers are sterile.
The workers gather pollen and nectar to feed later batches of grubs. New queens and males hatch at the end of the season and mate. The males, workers and old queens die; new queens hibernate. Bumblebees are not aggressive and will only sting if they feel threatened. They are important pollinators of many plants and fruiting trees.