Bumble Bees

[seb brown]

Am i right in thinking bumble-bees (the fat looking ones) don't live in colonie like honey bees and wasps, and don't sting? also they are a completely different insect to honey bees aren't they?

[Greedyfly]

they do sting but can only sting once - then they die

[Cetti]

The Bumble Bee lives in small colonies of about 150 individuals compared to the Honey Bee's colony of 60,000. They are different species but there are similarities.

A colony consists of a queen, worker and drone. The queen is the only fertilized female and her job is to lay eggs. The remainder of the females are the workers. They collect food, build the honeycomb, and among other things care for the eggs. The drones (males) help to maintain the hive temperature and fertilize the queen - after which the poor things are driven out by the workers to die.

Bumble bees are placid creatures and rarely sting, but if they do it doesn't kill them - unlike the honey bee.

[Phantaxus]

I can confirm they do sting or at least my wife can after she put her works uniform on and found one had been taking a nap in it. Also it showed no sign of dying while it chased me round our lounge. I eventually got it to go outside.