The Garden Bumble Bee - Bombus hortorum

Updated: 25th February 2020

The Garden Bumble bee, Bombus hortorum, has the longest tongue of all British bumble bee species, and it is one of only two remaining long tongued bumble bee species that are thought to be widespread. 

Having a long tongue means that it is a very useful pollinator of flowers with gullet, bell and funnel and flag type florets, and this means they are helpful pollinators of the bean and pea family, as well as clover (alfalfa), which is an important crop for cattle.  See my page flower border for bees for further information about different flower shapes.

Identifying Bombus hortorum

According to Ted Benton’s book, Bumblebees, queens can be variable in size, although the ones that I have come across have been on the larger size.  The range described in Benton’s book is 19-22mm.  The Field Guides To The Bumblebees of Great Britain & Ireland by Edwards and Jenner describes the Garden Bumblebee as “a large, robust species although early workers may be much smaller”.  This is in line with my personal experience.

Queens, workers and males all have two yellow bands on the thorax and one at the base of the abdomen, and a white tail.  The face is long.  One of the easiest ways to identify the Garden Bumblebee is by observing it as it approaches a flower, often with its very long tongue extended.

It can sometimes be mistaken for Bombus jonellus, which has a shorter face and is usually smaller, or Bombus ruderatus which is a rarer species.  The latter may have ginger hair on the mandibles.

Bombus hortorum habitat

It may be found in gardens, parks, and along the wildflower edges of woodlands.

Nests

Bombus hortorum usually makes its nest underground.

Colony Size And Life Cycle

The queens emerge from around March onwards, and you may see them prospecting for nests between March and early May.  Colonies tend to have around 100 workers.  Males tend to appear around June.

Predators and parasites

Colonies may be attacked by the cuckoo bumble bee species, Bombus barbutellus.  Other parasites include tachinid fly, Brachicoma devia, and the conopid fly, Physocephalus rufipes.

Flowers

These bumble bees will feed on comfrey, dead nettles, apple, vetches, nasturtium, flowering currant, foxglove, knapweed, delphinium, thistles, mallow, bramble, honeysuckle, lavender, bluebell, aquilegia, daffodil, aubretia, flowering currant, and ceanothus among others.

Read more about bumble bees

• Is It Bumble Bee Or Bumblebee? Is It Written As One Word Or Two? Although both are used widely, here's an explanation as to why, according to the Entomological Society of America, it should be written as two words.
  
  
• The Bumble Bee Life Cycle - A Description, Photos And Video The bumble bee life cycle starts with an impregnated queen when she emerges from her nest from her winter snooze. She feeds and seeks a suitable place to nest.
  
  
• Bumble Bee Nests: Nesting Preferences Of Different Bumble Bees, and challenges in finding suitable locations for nesting. 


• Bumble Bees All about bumble bees - their life cycles, pollination, and answers to common questions.
  
  
• Do Bumble Bees Make Honey? Bumble bees store nectar in little wax pots for feeding the colony as it grows, but it is not really quite the same thing as honey made by honey bees.

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