Thread by @the_beeguy

A quick thread on why helping #bumblebee queens who might get trapped in your house, conservatory, greenhouse or polytunnel to escape quickly is so important at this time of year. Please pass it on/#retweet. Thanks.🙏🏼 1/10
#bees #bumblebees

First: the #bumblebee lifecycle in brief.
Queens emerge from hibernation in early spring. They’re hungry obviously and need food. They feed up and immediately set about searching for a suitable site to establish a nest. 2/10
#bees #bumblebees

Once they identify a suitable site they store a small amount of food and lay their first batch of eggs. They sit on these eggs to keep them warm making necessarily efficient foraging trips in between to maintain the energy required to produce the heat for the eggs. 3/10
#bees

These eggs will produce the first brood of female workers - usually quite small #bumblebees - that will then assist the queen (foraging, nursery and other in nest duties) to produce and raise subsequent broods. The queen generally remains in the nest from this point. 4/10
#bees

Later in the summer the queen will produce male #bumblebees and ‘next year’s’ queens. Males will mate with new queens from other colonies and likewise new queens with males from other colonies.
The old queen, female workers and males die off naturally in the autumn. 5/10
#bees

The new queens forage to put on enough fat to survive hibernation until the following spring. They locate a suitable hibernation site and tuck in for the winter hopefully to emerge next spring to set up a brand new nest and repeat the process. 6/10
#bumblebees #bees

So you will generally see bumblebee queens on the wing in spring & late summer. Queens are obviously fundamental to nest establishment & success of their species. Every queen that survives is a nest that gets to exist & subsequent production of a future generation of queens. 7/10

If she dies her nest either never gets to be or dies with her.

Queen #bumblebees are out foraging around now to take on the resources to allow them to hibernate successfully until next spring.
It is estimated that one in five will not survive hibernation. 8/10
#bees

If you find a bee trapped in your house, polytunnel etc & you act quickly to #help her escape you are helping to ensure that a new nest is established next year. If you don’t and she dies then that nest won’t happen.
Our native wild #bees are in trouble. They need all the…9/10

..help they can get.
Saving any trapped bee is important. Savings/helping out queen #bumblebees in spring/late summer is vital.
So do your bit. It’s a small ask. Be vigilant. Help them out. Thanks for reading. For caring. For sharing. For acting.
Long Live the Queen! 10/10
#bees