The Humble Bumble Bee

A sure sign of approaching spring...

As the cold weather subsides, out come the overwintering queen bumble bees. They're gathering nectar and pollen, building their nests and laying eggs.

Lynn Kimsey, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, found a young queen bumble bee (Bombus melanopygus) on campus yesterday.

The confused queen managed to fly into Briggs Hall, home of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.

These particular  bees, native to North America, are nicknamed  "the orange-rumped bumble bees." They're basically your fuzzy-wuzzy, yellow-banded black bumble bees. 

Last year UC Davis entomologist Robbin Thorp tended a  nest of Bombus melanopygus  on the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility grounds at UC Davis. The story behind the story: an area resident was seeking a temporary location for the bumble bees, which were nesting in his birdhouse.  Thorp obliged.

The photos below: 

Kimsey's queen bumble bee (which rates a solid 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 for fuzzy-wuzziness) and a bumble bee ready to take flight from  the birdhouse.  The bumble-bee-in-the-birdhouse photo, taken Feb. 29, 2008, received an online presence when the North Carolina State University Museum asked to borrow it to illustrate some text.

All hail the humble bumble bee...ever beautiful and ever resourceful.