A Cluster of Bumbles

A bumble bee nest is quite different to a honey bee hive, as I discovered last week. I had just tipped a garden bag of dried cut foliage into the compost heap and found myself surrounded by black furry flying creatures looking disturbed. Some of them came out of the garden bag, others were rising out of the compost so I realised I had tipped out a bumble bee's nest. 

                                              

I felt horribly guilty and quickly retreated into the house. But I hadn't felt threatened so I ventured out again to see a collection of buff-tailed bumble bees disconsolately flying about. Eventually they found another bag nearby and began investigating and then creating another nest. I peered inside and saw the beginnings of a new nest, not at all geometrical - in fact quite  messy - made up of a haphazard arrangement  of egg-shaped cells which were soon screened off by a wall of what looked like wet sand. 

Bumble bee nest

                                           

                                       

I was much relieved and wanted to find out more so I looked up some online 'wildlife' sites. I was told 'If you find a bumble bee nest in your garden you are very lucky. Do not disturb it'. I was also told 'Don't breathe on it', which sounds like good advice.                                                                  

                                             Apparently a nest may last for two months and then most of the bees will die and only the queen will be left to sleep out the winter and emerge the following spring to start a new colony.  I try to have plants flowering all year round so she shouldn't be short of sustenance when she wakes up next year. Meanwhile I am so pleased the nest survived in spite of my clumsy interference. And I very much hope there will be more nests in the future. 

This is a good month for clematis. I have two I'm particularly fond of,  Niobe, a very dark purple climbing into a camellia bush and Mme Julia Correvon, a strong reddish-purple scrambling among the silvery leaves of a daisy bush (brachyglottis).                                                              

Clematis Niobe

                                                         

Clematis Mme Julia Correvon

                                                                                      Buff-tailed bumble bees