Who lives in a house like this?

Here is something I got very excited about in my garden this week. Any idea what this is?

To give you some sense of scale, it is a mound about the size of a half grapefruit, made of little fragments of grass.

It sits between three dried stems of nettles on a rough, grassy bank.

It’s a nest. And here is one of the residents just emerging.

Yes, it is the nest of a colony of Common Carder Bumblebees. Ten points if you guessed!

The Carder Bee (as it is commonly known) is one of our commonest bumblebees, found in gardens across the country. Rather small and short compared to our larger bumblebees, the adults are fairly easy to identify by their furry ginger thorax.

Despite their relative abundance, I have only ever found a handful of nests. As well as being well hidden, the thing is that each colony only contains about 50 adults or so at its peak. It means that, even on a busy day, one only enters or leaves the nest every minute or two, so it is not like a Honeybee hive where there is a constant parade of bees coming and going.

Carder bees also don’t mess about as they arrive or depart – they don’t want to advertise the nest’s location, so blink and you’ll miss them.

But find a nest and you may be lucky enough to see bees carding. ‘Carding’? It means ‘to comb’, for that’s how they make their nest, collecting and assembling their grassy igloo. It;s a bit like raking, really!

So are you ready to see a bit of carding in action? Stand back, we’re going hi-tech! Here is a bit of footage I took of one tidying around the entrance.

She is like a proud homeowner brushing the front step, ensuring all is clear for her sisters to take off and land.

Have you found any bumblebee nests this year? I’d be fascinated to hear where they were.