Minibeasts to look for in April — Bee

Where to look

Anywhere where there are flowers such as gardens, parks and woodland edges.

Description

There are more than 250 species of bee in the UK. They can be divided into social bees (those that nest together in large groups) and solitary bees (those which live alone in a single nest). Bumblebees and honeybees are social bees. Bumblebees nest in colonies ranging from a few dozen to several hundred bees while honeybees now mostly live in hives of up to 20,000. There is only one species of honeybee in this country and they have been domesticated for hundreds of years, so it is rare to find a truly wild colony. Honey is their way of storing food for bad times which allows colonies to survive the winter. On the other hand, bumble bees live their life in just one year. Queens hibernate deep underground, living off fat built up over the summer before. As soon as the weather warms up they wake up, feed, then lay eggs (using stored sperm) which will turn into new workers. There are different types of solitary bees, those which will build single nests in the ground (mining bees), those which nest in cavities in wood, hollow stems and walls (mason bees) and those which lay their eggs in other solitary or social bee nests (cuckoo bees).

A sting is a modified egg laying tube (ovipositor) and in honeybees it is barbed like a hook. If it stings anything but another insect, it gets stuck and part of the bee comes with it, usually killing the poor bee.

Spottings

Maia

James

Peaches

Jacob

Tilly

Ilse

“I found this bee in the garden”

Tamsin

Graham

“Bee buzzing in and out of the flowers in our garden at home.”

Shahnaz

“Bee sitting on a purple flower in our garden at home.”

Shurjo

“Bees in our garden at home buzzing around the flowers”

Finley

“Red Bottomed Bumble Bee”

Mrs A

Mrs Dalgleish-Smith

“My garden”

stacey

“Bumbling bumble bee”

Ava

“There was a whit-tailed bumble bee in my garden.”

Isabelle

“A bee in our conservatory.”

Amélie

Pops

“In our courtyard bird box!”

Carmen

“I found a white-tailed bumble bee in a field.”

Carrie

“I found a white-tailed bumble bee was in a flower bed.”

Freddie

“A white-tailed bumble bee was in my kitchen.”

“A white-tailed bumble bee.”

“I think it was a buff-tailed bumble bee in my garden.”

Nico

“A white-tailed bumble bee in the field next to my house.”

Katie

“I spotted a buff-tailed bumblebee in a hydrangea.”

Cai

“We found a bee flying around a daisy but couldn't get close enough to see what kind it was.”

Thomas

“We spotted tawny mining bees and a what we think is a white-tailed bumble bee. We have two hives in the roof of our house.”

Harry

“A white tailed bumble bee.”

Hywel

Jack

“Spotted a bee in the garden.”

Dexter

“Lots of bees spotted in the garden including buff-tailed bumble bee, white-tailed bumble bee, red-tailed bumble bee and hairy footed flower bee.”

Jaime

“White-tailed bumble bee found in the field.”

Daniel and Mrs S

“A white-tailed bumble bee was on a bluebell in our garden.”

Carol

Harry

“A white tailed bumble bee in the garden.”

Harry

“A white tailed bumble bee found in the front garden.”

All of us

Edie

“Thirsty little bee stopped for a drink”

Ilse

“Little bee needed a drink”

Xavier

Sue

Daisy.M

“Spotted this buzzy creature just down my road!”

Leah

“On next doors tree in back garden”

Darren

“Hovering around in the back garden”

ella

Gavin

“Spotted in Polzeath, Cornwall.”

Tamsin

Robin

Where we've found Bees

Bee spottings journal (58 seen)

Last seen	Location	Spotted by	Group	Notes
23 Apr 2024			Stroud Valleys Project
16 Apr 2023			Stroud Valleys Project
28 Apr 2022	Frome Gardens	Maia	Foxmoor Primary
28 Apr 2022	Haverford West	James	Foxmoor Primary
28 Apr 2022		Peaches	Foxmoor Primary
28 Apr 2022	Stratford Court	Jacob	Foxmoor Primary
28 Apr 2022		Tilly	Foxmoor Primary
17 Apr 2022		Ilse	Leafgatherers	I found this bee in the garden
31 Mar 2022			Stroud Valleys Project
19 Apr 2021	Stroud	Tamsin	Stroud Valleys Project
27 Dec 2020	Tewkesbury	Graham	Wright Family	Bee buzzing in and out of the flowers in our garden at home.
27 Dec 2020	Tewkesbury	Shahnaz	Wright Family	Bee sitting on a purple flower in our garden at home.
27 Dec 2020	Tewkesbury	Shurjo	Wright Family	Bees in our garden at home buzzing around the flowers
20 Jun 2020		Finley	Ireland Class
2 Jun 2020	Cirencester Primary School	TR	Wales Class	Red Bottomed Bumble Bee
20 May 2020	Ruscombe	Mrs A	Year 2 CPS
6 May 2020	my garden	Mrs Dalgleish-Smith	Ireland Class	My garden
3 May 2020	cam	stacey	Wild group	Bumbling bumble bee
30 Apr 2020	Chepstow	Ava	St John's on-the-Hill	There was a whit-tailed bumble bee in my garden.
30 Apr 2020	Lydney	Isabelle	St John's on-the-Hill	A bee in our conservatory.
29 Apr 2020	Garden	Amélie	Cooks&Co
29 Apr 2020		Pops	Cooks&Co	In our courtyard bird box!
28 Apr 2020	Chepstow	Carmen	St John's on-the-Hill	I found a white-tailed bumble bee in a field.
28 Apr 2020	Tidenham	Carrie	St John's on-the-Hill	I found a white-tailed bumble bee was in a flower bed.
28 Apr 2020	St Arvans	Freddie	St John's on-the-Hill	A white-tailed bumble bee was in my kitchen.
28 Apr 2020	St Briavels		St John's on-the-Hill	A white-tailed bumble bee.
28 Apr 2020	Llandogo		St John's on-the-Hill	I think it was a buff-tailed bumble bee in my garden.
28 Apr 2020	Chepstow	Nico	St John's on-the-Hill	A white-tailed bumble bee in the field next to my house.
28 Apr 2020	Tintern	Katie	St John's on-the-Hill	I spotted a buff-tailed bumblebee in a hydrangea.
28 Apr 2020	NP26 3EJ	Cai	St John's on-the-Hill	We found a bee flying around a daisy but couldn't get close enough to see what kind it was.
28 Apr 2020	NP16 7HL	Thomas	St John's on-the-Hill	We spotted tawny mining bees and a what we think is a white-tailed bumble bee. We have two hives in the roof of our house.
28 Apr 2020		Harry	St John's on-the-Hill	A white tailed bumble bee.
28 Apr 2020	NP15 1HB	Hywel	St John's on-the-Hill
28 Apr 2020	Chepstow	Jack	St John's on-the-Hill	Spotted a bee in the garden.
28 Apr 2020	Chepstow	Dexter	St John's on-the-Hill	Lots of bees spotted in the garden including buff-tailed bumble bee, white-tailed bumble bee, red-tailed bumble bee and hairy footed flower bee.
28 Apr 2020	Tidenham.	Jaime	St John's on-the-Hill	White-tailed bumble bee found in the field.
28 Apr 2020		Daniel and Mrs S	St John's on-the-Hill	A white-tailed bumble bee was on a bluebell in our garden.
23 Apr 2020			Lost in the Wild
23 Apr 2020	Springfield Road Cashes Green Stroud	Carol	ClH
22 Apr 2020	NP16 6BT	Harry	St John's on-the-Hill	A white tailed bumble bee in the garden.
22 Apr 2020	NP16 6BT	Harry	St John's on-the-Hill	A white tailed bumble bee found in the front garden.
22 Apr 2020			Butterrow
22 Apr 2020			Butterrow
15 Apr 2020	In our garden	All of us	Buckley-Nolans
14 Apr 2020	Rodborough	Edie	Leafgatherers	Thirsty little bee stopped for a drink
14 Apr 2020	Rodborough	Ilse	Leafgatherers	Little bee needed a drink
14 Apr 2020	in our hives		Stroud Valley Community School
11 Apr 2020	Workman woods	Xavier	MogsHouse
7 Apr 2020	Garden	Jo	The Weaver's
5 Apr 2020		Sue	Woodside
4 Apr 2020	New Polzeath	Daisy.M	Blended	Spotted this buzzy creature just down my road!
2 Apr 2020		Leah	The Smiths	On next doors tree in back garden
2 Apr 2020		Darren	The Smiths	Hovering around in the back garden
28 Mar 2020			Morris-tree
27 Mar 2020	gadun	ella	The Weaver's
24 Mar 2020	Polzeath, Cornwall.	Gavin	Blended	Spotted in Polzeath, Cornwall.
24 Mar 2020		Tamsin	Stroud Valleys Project
13 Mar 2020	Bath Road	Robin	Leafgatherers

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