As I look out of my window, I often see a bumblebee pass, buzzing as he goes. They are the iconic, loveable characters in literature such as Babbity Bumble in the tale of Mrs Tittlemouse and the thousands of bees that stood between Winnie the Pooh and his lunch over the years.
While in cartoons their stripes are whimsical, their colouring is actually a warning that the females can pack a nasty sting. And while we’re used to the classic yellow and black fluffy stripes, bumblebees also come in reds, oranges and pinks! The word bumble refers to the buzzing, droning noise the bumblebee makes. However they used to be called humble-bees, as mentioned in Charles Darwin’s ‘On the origin of the species’.
They have hairy back legs that help to carry pollen around, which are called pollen baskets. They feed on nectar using a long hairy tongue to dip in the nectar from hard to reach places. When they have been successful looking for food, they will come back to the hive and run around excitedly round the nest before heading back out again. This lets the others know it’s a good time to go looking for food.
There are over 250 species are known of bumblebee. They are very social, although they only have small nests of about 50 – 400 bees. It sounds like a lot until you find that honey bees have around 50,000 bees!!
There is a commonly known story that tells that one day at a dinner party a prominent aerodynamicist did a calculation on the back of a napkin and came to the conclusion that bees simply cannot fly. Their wings are too small and their little bodies too fat. When you look at a bee it’s easy to tell why this story stuck around for so long and why it’s so believable. Unfortunately though it isn’t true, the calculation he made was way too simplified. As you can imagine, there are a lot of factors that go into making something fly!
So bumblebees aren’t impossible, just...a bit unlikely.