Honey Bees vs Bumble Bees.. Since becoming a backyard novice beekeeper I have been asked by neighbors to help them understand the difference between the Honey Bee and the Bumble Bee. Many thought they were all the same, but I knew there were differences between the 2 species of bees. After researching I found that Bumblebees are robust, large around the middle, have alot more hairs on their body which are colored in yellow, orange and black. Their wings can be easily seen since they are dark in color and the tip of their abdomen is rounded. Bumble Bees are better at pollination, as they are weather resistant to cold and rain. They can at times specialize in certain species of flowers which is very good for our fruit trees. Bumble Bees typically nest underground, although nests can be found above ground on occasion. The Queen Bumble Bee nests and can live up to one year and overwinters at the nest site. Many of her workers as many as 100 or more, only live a few months. Bumble Bees are pollinators, they do make honey, but for their consumption, they do not make a surplus of honey for harvesting. Our Honeybees are more slender in body appearance, have fewer body hairs and wings that are more translucent and their abdomen is more pointed. They live above ground in hives and as many as 70,000 may live in one hive and each as previously mentioned have designated jobs in the hive. They too pollinate, make honey for their survival during the winters and do make a surplus of honey, as a gift to the beekeepers to extract. In general, honeybees and bumblebees are not overly aggressive, however, both will sting to defend themselves if threaten and definitely sting to protect their colony. The primary difference in their stinging behavior relates to the greater number of honeybees that sting when compared to bumblebees. While a honeybee only stings once and dies, a bumblebee is capable of stinging multiple times then adios goes on to the next flower. Hope you enjoy this article our bees are very unique and their species are so fascinating they could only be created by God!

SCR.Org.

The Honey Bee vs the Bumble Bee

Bees have been much in the news of late, and for the saddest of reasons: due to habitat loss, global warming, pesticides, and monocrop agriculture, their numbers are in sharp decline across the United States. The loss of bees and other threatened pollinators could damage not only the world’s economy, but also endanger its very ecosystem.

But not all bees are created equal: there are nearly 20,000 known species, differing widely in physical characteristics, pollination habits, behaviors, and habitat. And although we can’t be familiar with all of them, we can take a first step by considering two of the most common varieties: the bumblebee and the honeybee.

BUMBLEBEES VS. HONEYBEES: APPEARANCE AND HABITAT

Let’s get the taxonomy out of the way first. Although the various bumblebee and honeybee species both belong to the Apidae family, bumblebees belong to the Bombus genus and honeybees to Apis. Their appearance is different, as well.

Bumblebees are round and fuzzy; honeybees are smaller and thinner – it would be easy, in fact, to mistake them for wasps. And while honeybees have a clear distinction between head and abdomen, bumblebees are “all of one piece.” Honeybees also have two clear sets of wings: a larger set in front and a smaller set in back.

Close up of a honeybee

But it is in habitat where their dissimilarities are most clearly marked. Hyper-social honeybees live in hives with tens of thousands of their brethren: those hives can either be domesticated colonies kept by beekeepers or wild ones found in hollow trees. As their name suggests, they are honey producers, and their long-lived colonies survive the winter intact – the queen, in fact, can live for some three to four years.

Close up of a bumblebee

Bumblebees are social, too, but not to the same extent. Where honeybees build hives, bumblebees live in nests with up to a few hundred fellow bees. These nests are found exclusively in the wild (bumblebees are not domesticated), and can often be found in burrows or holes in the ground. In fact, the queen, which is the only member of a bumblebee colony to survive the winter, hibernates in the ground. Bumblebees are not honey producers – or rather, what they produce is for self-consumption in the nest.

BUMBLEBEES VS. HONEYBEES: POLLINATION AND FEEDING

Of the two groups, bumblebees are the better pollinators. The reason for this is eminently practical: as there are more species of bumblebees, there is a wider variety in lengths of tongue and, thus, the kinds of flowers they feed from. They are fast workers and, because of their larger bodies, can carry larger loads.

Bumblebee

Bumblebees are good at learning how to extract pollen from different flowers and can even specialize in certain species. And this greater flexibility makes them adept at cross-pollination, which is particularly important for fruit trees. Moreover, bumblebees are more resistant to weather conditions such as cold, rain, and limited light.

The one advantage honeybees have is communication: they actually perform a dance to let their fellow workers know where good supplies of pollen can be found! Although this is good for their colony and honey production, it can actually be a disadvantage in terms of pollination. Whereas honeybees will rush off to mine a certain pollen source, bumblebees will stay around, patiently working an extended area until it is fully pollinated.

Honeybees

DON’T FEAR THE STING

One final difference: honeybees can only sting once before dying. Bumblebees can sting multiple times, but they do not form swarms like honeybees and they only sting when truly provoked.

Both bee types are safe enough to host in your backyard, so take sensible precautions and don’t let fear of stings prevent you from planting wildflowers to attract bees and reverse decades of habitat loss. You can either do this in your own yard or in unattended areas through the use of seed balls. You’ll not only be helping to save our endangered bees, but you’ll able to appreciate their differences for yourself!

Honeybee

reference.. SCA.orgS