A Thing or Two About Bumblebees

The development of bumblebees is much like that of honey bees. There are, however, several significant differences.
A colony of bumblebees builds a hive for a season and then abandons it, instead of inhabiting it year to year as honeybees do.
Bumblebees are not as social as honeybees. Colonies typically contain no more than 150 bees, as opposed to 20,000 - 80,000 honeybees per hive. The average size of a bumblebee colony is roughly 60 bees.
Bumblebees are very hairy and look much like a big fluff ball flying in the air. But a bumblebee's fury appearance is what makes bumblebees efficient pollinators. Flowers need a bumblebee's hairy physique to transfer pollen from one flower to another. The more hair a pollinator has, the more effective it is at pollinating flowers.
When a bumblebee stings, it stings in a circular pattern, while honey bees sting once, embedding the stinger in the skin.

The Bumblebee's Life

Queen bumblebees hibernate in the fall and emerge in the spring to start a new hive. In
Like mason bees, bumblebee queens forage for honey and nectar. The queen forms a mixture of pollen and nectar into a large mass and lays eggs upon it.
The queen generates body heat to warm the eggs as they develop into larvae, a process taking 16-25 days.
When the young bees emerge they first tend to the hive, and then graduate to foraging for food.
In midsummer the hive begins to produce new queens and drones.
When the queens emerge after a 30-day gestation period, they eat nectar and then mate. After mating, drones are expelled from the hive.
The new queens then find cavities in which to hibernate until spring.