Bumblebee Watch

Friday, March, 29, 2019

It might be strange for me to be talking about bumblebees when there is still 4 feet of snow on the ground outside my office window but bumblebees are a bee I will be studying this summer. I have always been interested in bumblebees and for years at the flower farm, I have intentionally grown a few rows of Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' which appears to be a regional magnet for various pollinators including bumblebees. I joined up with the Xerces Society last month and just noticed a blog about a study being conducted by York University in Toronto, Canada. Part of the project is identifying Pacific Northwest bumblebee species in the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.  Long haul from Vermont and the east, right????

Take a look at  https://www.bumblebeewatch.org/ and click on the Bumblebee Species tab and when it opens, on the top right is a drop down for bee species. As you click through each one you'll notice a map of the Continental US at the bottom which is shaded for each bumblebee's geographic presence. Surprisingly, many of the bumblebees which live in the west also live in the east.

My experience so far is that from year to year there are more or fewer bumblebee species at the flower farm. This past summer it was exceptionally dry and the bee populations were very high in number. This was true of all insects including butterflies and moths. During springtimes when snowmelt has been slow and snow was deep, to begin with, bumblebee numbers have been down. I have always attributed this to rodents seeking out queens and eliminating the opportunity for a ground hive early in the summer season. I may be wrong on that but Spring 2019 will be a great year to test the theory after all the snow we have received. If you notice a queen flying around your gardens, check the species pictures and try to identify which one you have.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where +40 evening grosbeaks are cleaning up birdseed right now.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
vermontflowerfarm.com
On Facebook as George Africa and also as Vermont Flower Farm & Gardens
Just today wrote about migratory birds returning to western Vermont