Bumblebee, The

[Music] everyone knows the Bumblebee it is a familiar insect found in all parts of the United States few people people however have had the opportunity of looking into a Bumblebee's Nest the Bumblebee usually chooses the abandoned nest of a mouse a chipmunk or a ground squirrel in April the Bumblebee crawls out of the Earth where it has been hibernating all winter immediately it begins the search for deserted Nest back and forth flies the bee searching looking occasionally Landing to examine the ground more closely eventually the bee finds a nesting site one day in miday we caught a queen bee coming out of an old deserted ground squirrel burrow after capturing the queen we dug up the tunnel at the end of the tunnel we found the old ground squirrel nest which had now become the nest of a bumblebee we took the nest indoors and placed it in a cigar box a piece of glass under the cover allows us to look inside the bamboo tube leads through the window screen to the outdoors permitting the queen to go out and find food now we can watch the queen at home the big yellow lumps under her feet are cocoons they are the result of the first group of eggs laid in early May on the right and left left hand side you can see the clusters of brown wax cells which contain the young bees in the grub stage on the left you can see the honey pot where the queen keeps a supply of honey for a rainy day it must be raining today on cold days the queen takes a position like a setting hen brooding The Hive and keeping it warm on bright sunny days the queen gathers nectar and pollen from the dandelion nectar is stored in the honey pot then the queen walks to the rear corner where she scrapes the pollen from her back legs by this time those of you with sharp eyes have noticed something see the little brown mites crawling on the rim of the honey pot and on the queen they are harmless parasites found in the nest of almost every bumblebee one day in late May the First new little bee appeared the first workers are only half the size of the mother Queen nevertheless the tiny bee immediately begins to work in the nest just Mother's Little Helper within a few days other workers appear busily the workers visit late spring flowers Gathering nectar and pollen with abundant food The Hive prospers the second brood has changed to cocoons each day new workers emerge from cocoons each day new Strength is added to the hive and then one day tragedy struck the queen went out and she failed to return now a nest Without a Queen is a nest without a future for it is only the queen that can lay fertile eggs finally we decided upon Desperate Measures we captured a queen of the same species and placed her in the cigar box Nest a plug of cotton prevents the queen from escaping the workers however must go in and out for food each time a worker comes along we let him in then quickly replace the plug so that the queen cannot escape a watch is kept inside too each time a worker starts down the tube a signal is given the plug is removed then quickly replaced so the queen cannot Escape finally we replace the cotton with a small wooden plug which reduces the size of the entrance so that only the small workers can get through and the larger Queen cannot escape and that is the way we kidnapped a queen and save the nest the new Queen quickly adopts the nest as her own summer brings an abundance of flowers like the bergamont and the Bumblebees are busy gathering food only insects with long tongues can reach into the deep flowers of the Bergamot to tap the supplies of nectar the Bumblebee has the longest tongue of all bees a tongue that slides up into the mouth and folds under the chin the long tongue of the Bumblebee can easily reach into the deep throats of the red clover blossom the honey be with a shorter tongue tries hard to reach the nectar but succeeds only with the shorter blossoms and eventually gives up the red clover depends upon the Bumblebee for its future existence the Bumblebee travels from flower to flower pollinating the blossoms and helping to set the seed it is difficult to produce red clover seed without the Bumblebee the farmers of New Zealand made that Discovery years ago they were able ble to raise wonderful crops of red clover but they couldn't produce the seed then someone realized that the Bumblebees were missing only after bumblebees were imported to New Zealand was it possible to raise red clover seed in that country with increased supplies of food new storage places have to be found and the workers are busy cleaning out empty cocoons a rim of wax around the edge reinforces the Cocoon each worker in turn unloads its supply of nectar by compressing the abdomen and squeezing the stomach dry now watch the lumps of pollen fall as this worker prized them from the basket of hairs on the back legs this pollen will be used as a future supply of food the search for food continues throughout the summer Bumblebees are large enough and strong enough to walk over the milkweed blossom without danger of being trapped by the clusters of pollen that cling to the legs of visiting insects the smaller honeybee is often trapped by these pollen appendages and has difficulty in getting away the Bumblebee is also strong enough to force its way into the bottle gensin these flowers never open and require the services of the Bumblebee for pollination on the left the queen is making wax with glands on the upper and lower sides of her abdomen the thin transparent scales of wax are worked into a brown lump and finally shaped into an egg cup then the queen inserts the end of her abdomen into the cup and There She lays an egg as soon as the egg is laid she covers the cup with wax now we remove the top and see the glistening white egg inside promptly the queen moves in and covers the exposed egg the egg must be concealed otherwise a worker might come along reach in take out the egg and deliberately Smash It the queen has to hide her egg from her own jealous workers eggs hatch in 3 to 4 days the young bee is a helpless grub it has no eyes and no legs under the constant care of the workers the young grub grows rapidly on the seventh day the grub spins a cocoon under the wax 12 Days Later the mature bee begins to cut its way out of the Cocoon the entire top is cut away and then the young bee emerges at first it is white in color but it will turn to the characteristic yellow of the bumble will be in about 2 Days by August new Young Queens can be seen visiting late summer flowers in late August and early September the new Young Queens begin to search for a place to hibernate each Queen slips under the grass and then digs several inches down into the sod winter is still several months away but the queen believes in hibernating well in advance it is late in the year and the new Queens are safely tucked away in hibernation the old Queen Is Dead suddenly the workers become idle and the nest once thriving begins to fall apart in the far south where flowers bloom all winter and food is available the Bumblebee Nest sometimes survives the entire winter but in the north every Nest is doomed when winter arrives lives only the new Young Queen survive the winter safely tucked away in the Frozen Earth holding onto a tiny spark of Life despite the Snows and Ice above and when the warm sun of April thaws the Earth the sleeping Queen awakens and begins to fight her way upward struggling through the soft Earth until she reaches the surface and sunlight once free of the earth she cleans herself carefully soon she will start the long journey in search of a new Nest to begin a new generation [Music]