Bumble Bees

A fat cherubim creature flits between the flowers of the garden with the grace of a plump fairy. Softly buzzing, humming his way through the daily chores. He slowly nudges his head between the petals, coating his hairs with the fine sunshine dust. He knows each flower, like a good friend he visits each one on his rounds, before waving goodbye and moving on. The bumble bee is a friend of the flowers, friend of the world, precious.

 The bumble bee belongs to the bee genus Bombus, and there are over two hundred and fifty known species scattered throughout the world. It is considered a keystone species. This means that a number of other life forms depend on them directly for survival. This humble bee is directly accountable for 14.2 billion Euros with of fresh produce production in Europe each year. They are increasingly being used as agricultural pollinators, because of their behaviour known as buzz pollination. This is when a bee inspects a plant and by doing so its buzzing releases the pollen of the flower. For this reason the bumble bee is used in green houses and specifically in tomato farming.

Their value and use have been well documented. Research on the bumble bee has lead to the first bumble bee sanctuary, which  was established in 2008 in Scotland. Unfortunately this recognition is only so in the developed counties. The third world counties have decreasing populations of bumble bees due to the use of dangerous chemicals and lass of habitat. Without the bumble bee, many of the world’s rare plants would disappear. They are the major pollinators of wild flowers throughout the world. Over the course of 70 years, 2 bumble bees’ species have naturally died out in the UK alone, with several others on the watch list.

These industrious creatures typically live in extended family units, colonies of about 50 individuals, often in vacated sub terrarium homes of other creatures. Flying up to 2km away from the nest to find suitable pollen, they revisit the same patch of flowers daily and demonstrate a trait known as flower consistency. They can fly up to an unbelievable speed of 54km per hour and learn which flowers to attend to by colour recognition. Unlike other bees they only store a few days worth of honey at a time, consequently allowing themselves to be far more susceptible to food shortages. 

One last and immensely interesting fact about their wonderful creatures...the buzzing noise that the bees makes is not made by the beating of their wings, rather it is the vibration of their muscles and the body itself that makes the noise. They do this to create a high body temperature to take flight, especially in cold weather, some bees have been documented as having achieved a 30*c internal thoratic temperature.

 "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live." Albert Einstein