Garden And Gossip Forums

Some years ago I joined the  Bumblebee Conservation Trust and they sent me a wallchart of Bumblebees something like this one https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/bu...ies-guide/

There are 24 species of UK bumblebee  - comprising 11 bumble bees, 5 carder bees and 6 cuckoo bees.  
7 bumblebees and 1 Carder bee  are likely to be seen in gardens -  as are the 6 Cuckoo bees.

Cuckoo bees aren't very nice as they attack bumblebees - they don't have pollen baskets on their hind legs and have darker wings. 

I'm on a mission to learn to identify and spot these Bumblebees - - the common ones 
It may take a while as I only know them as white tailed, red tailed and ginger tails - and big ones and little ones.
Didn't even know there was such a thing as a Cuckoo bee until tonight. 

Any bumblebee experts here?

Not an expert in any way. So I’ll learn with you   . 

That’s a great chart.

Two of the bees - Moss Carder Bee and the Great yellow Bumblebee are rare Scottish species so you may spot one of those?

Bob was telling me about the yellow bumblebee being localised in places around here, just last week.

My chart says its a "Very rare Scottish species". Lucky you.

Ok so it looks like we’ll only see one if we go over to the isle of coll or Tiree. So there’s still a chance of seeing one but it’s not high.

Maybe you've found an unrecorded area where they live?

Fascinating, I'm definitely going to pay more attention to bumbles. We get some as big as dogs around here...OK a slight exaggeration. How do you get them to stand still while you get your chart out to check what sort they are?

You have to fly alongside them, JJB. .............just flap your arms and go Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz