14/12/2021
Honeybee Or Bumblebee?
I often get asked about the difference
Bumblebees
The UK has 24 species of bumblebee (Bombus spp.)
Bumblebees are often large and hairy (think flying fuzz ball)
Bumblebee queens hibernate over winter and emerge during the spring to start a new colony which can consist of anywhere between 50 and 100 bees. Once a bumblebee colony starts producing their own queens and males the numbers in the original colony will start to dwindle, the newly mated queens will then hibernate alone during the winter to start the process all over again next spring. Bumblebee colonies only last for a single season. Bumblebees do collect and store nectar, but they don’t convert it into honey.
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Honeybees
This is the bee that beekeepers work with. They are much smaller and more slender than bumblebees with distinct banding on the abdomen ranging from honey colour to black!
The UK has 1 species of honeybee known as the European honeybee - Apis mellifera (Apis being Latin for ‘bee’ and mellifera being Latin for ‘honey baring’) and 26 sub species.
Honeybees form colonies from anywhere between 20,000 and 80,000 (sometimes more!)
They consist of a single Queen who will lay from 1000 to 2000 eggs per day during peak season.
Honeybees swarm to reproduce, the old queen will fly off with the majority of the flying forager bees and leave behind the non-flying nurse and house bees to raise a new queen to lead the colony. A single honeybee colony can produce anywhere from 14 to 27kg of honey in a season, very strong colonies can produce significantly more! Its good practice to leave as much honey as you can (at least 9-14kg) for the bees to overwinter.
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