The lifecycle of a bumblebee

Find out about our exciting day in Camberwell as 500 perennials were planted at the Bee Garden. Plus with spring just around the corner, what are bumblebees doing as the weather starts to warm up?

04 February 2023

Bumblebee on crocus flower

Explore the meaning behind the words in bold in our glossary at the bottom of this page.

The lifecycle of a bumblebee

Nesting

Queen bumblebees have spent the winter in burrows underground, and are beginning to wake up. They need to eat so they look for early spring flowers to feed on their nectar. Once fed, they start to look for a place to nest - this could be an old mouse or vole hole, long grass or even in compost heaps, tree cavities, loft spaces or bird boxes.

Inside the nest, the queen uses pollen and wax to build a mound to lay her eggs on. She then sits on her eggs to keep them warm.

Hatching

After a few days, bumblebee larvae hatch from the eggs. The queen leaves the nest to gather nectar and pollen to feed the larvae. Two weeks later each larva makes a cocoon called a pupa. They eventually emerge from the cocoon as adult worker bumblebees.

The adult worker bumblebees are all female. They collect pollen and nectar to feed the next batch of larvae. The queen stays in the nest laying eggs, which hatch to become more worker bumblebees.

Left: Honesty flowers early in the spring, providing nectar and pollen for early bumblebees, Right: Common carder bumblebee nest.

New queens in mid-summer

In mid-summer, the eggs that the queen lays hatch into new queens and male bees instead of worker bumblebees. The male bumblebees and new queens fly away from the nest to feed and look for mates. The newly mated queens feed on nectar and pollen ready to overwinter in an underground burrow.

The rest of the bumblebees in the colony die as the weather begins to turn colder.

Get involved

Look out for signs of plants beginning to emerge after winter, such as snowdrops and crocus. Can you spot the early signs and protect the plants so that people don’t accidentally stand on them? Why not make some signs to keep the plants safe and ready for the bees to come and feed on them?

Snowdrops (white flowers) and Crocuses (purple flowers) start flowering in January and February (Image credit: Carol Sheppard)

Planting for pollinators at a London school

"It's a great space for the kids to immerse themselves in nature and learn about sustainability and biodiversity. We're right in the middle of a city so it's much needed." - Joe Swift

On a crisp sunny morning in January, 500 plants for pollinators* were unloaded at St George’s Primary School, Camberwell, and were laid out in the garden by Joe. Keen to see the action, 11 pupils came outside to meet Joe and talk to him about what they had learned about pollinators. Since May 2022, the pupils have been tracking pollinators using a POLLY created by Agrisound, which tracks how many visit the garden. They have been learning whether more bees and hoverflies visit the garden during the daytime or in the dark, on dry days or wet days and when it is warm or when it is cold. They have also been discovering about the importance of pollinators in the production of fruit and vegetables - you can read more about this in our January update.

After lunch, it was all hands on deck as the bee houses, designed by Joe, were installed and members from the local Southwark community arrived to help get the plants in the ground. From making focaccia with home-grown rosemary at a local bakery to sharing calendula seeds with the local Caribbean day centre and talking to their elders about what they used to grow, the school are heavily involved with the local community.

“We’re 60% pupil premium, and many of our kids are in and out of temporary housing, so it benefits them massively. This is the first time many of them have ever planted anything and seen it grow. The children are very excited.” - Andrew Rojas, Headteacher

We can’t wait to see how the garden develops as the plants grow and how many pollinators it attracts.

Glossary

Cocoon	Some insects form a sort of bag or envelope around themselves called a cocoon while they change from a larva into an adult insect.
Colony	Large group of one type of animal that is living and working together. Social bees lives in colonies, including honeybees and most bumblebees. Honeybee colonies are given the specific term ‘hive’ or ‘beehive’.
Emerge	To move out of something.
Larvae	The active juvenile stage of an insect, usually referring to those insects that go through a pupal stage where the larva looks very different to the adult.
Lifecycle	The stages through which living things pass, from birth to death including reproduction of the next offspring.
Mate	The sexual act of a male and female individual of a species coming together to breed.
Mated	Where an individual has partnered with the opposite sex to mate. For example, a mated bumblebee queen is one, which has been together with a male bumblebee. As a result she will normally be carrying fertilised eggs.
Mound	A small heap or pile of something or a raised area of earth.
Nectar	Sweet liquid produced in flowers.
Overwinter	To spend the winter months
Pollen	Dust like powder produced by flowers and carried by wind or pollinators to other flowers of the same type, so they can make seeds and grow new plants.
Pupa (plural: pupae)	Stage in-between being a larva and an adult insect.
Queen	A single female bee in a colony that can produce young bees which are usually looked after by other female worker bees.
Vole	A small mammal that looks like a mouse, with smaller ears and a shorter tail.

Find out more about bees

Are you just buzzing to find out more about bees? You can find out more in our monthly updates.

Learn more about pollinators:

September update

Find out more about pollen:

October update

What happens to bees in the colder months?

November update

How many types of bees are there in the UK?

December update

Discover how bees help put the food on your plate:

January update

*Full list of plants at the Bee Garden in Camberwell

Perennials

Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Blue Ice'
Anchusa Dropmore
Japanese anemone 'Honorine Jobert'
Astrantia 'Buckland'
Brunnera 'Jack Frost'
Cenolopholium denudatym
Cirsium 'Trevors blue wonder'
Coreopsis Full Moon
Erigeron karvinskianus
Erysium 'Bowles Mauve'
Foeniculum vulgare
Gaura linheimeri
Geranium Rozanne
Geum 'Totally Tangerine'
Gillenia trifolata
Hesperis matronalis
Hesperis matronalis alba
Knautia macedonia
Nepeta 'Walker's Low'
Origanum herrenhausen
Salvia 'amstad'
Thalictrum 'Elin'
Valeriana officinalis
Verbena bonariensis

Grasses

Miscanthus gracilimus
Seslaria autumnalis
Stipa Gigantea

Ferns and shady groundcover

Dryopteris filis mas
Polystichum setiferum