Bee Friendly City Award Campaign

Background information on bees

The UK is home to a wide variety of bee species, with around 270 different species recorded. There are three primary groups of bees: the most well-known species is the honeybee, but there are also 24 species of bumblebee, and over 240 species of solitary bees. You can encounter many of these wonderful insects in your garden, local park or nature reserve.

Types of bees

1. Honeybees –Honeybees are social bees that live in highly organised colonies. In the height of summer there is an average of 40,000 bees in a hive. Over the winter this falls to around 5,000 bees.

There are three types of honeybees that live in the hive:

• The queen – the single fertile female responsible for laying eggs. A healthy queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day during the peak season. Besides reproduction, the queen produces pheromones that suppress the reproductive systems of the worker bees.
• Worker bees – non-fertile females that make up the vast majority of the hive's population. They perform a number of roles to ensure the survival of the live, and their duties change as they age.
  • Housekeepers (Days 1 – 4): The work begins as soon as she is born: newly-emerged bees clean out the honeycomb cell they were born in and surrounding cells to prepare them for the queen's next eggs.
  • Nurses (Days 4–12): They produce royal jelly and feed the growing larvae.
  • Builders (Days 12–18): They secrete beeswax to build and repair the honeycomb structure.
  • Guards (Days 18–21): They patrol the hive entrance to defend against wasps and other predators.
  • Foragers (Days 22+): They leave the hive to collect nectar, pollen, water, and tree resin (propolis) until the end of their lifespan.

• Drones – male bees whose main role is to mate with a queen. Once they have mated, they die.

2. Bumblebees

Bumblebees are large, furry insects that are known for their loud buzzing. The 24 UK species can be divided into two groups by lifecycle. Eighteen are social species, and the remaining six are parasitic “cuckoo” bumblebees, which invade nests of social species.

Social bumblebees: these live in small colonies of around 50 – 400 individuals, comprising a queen bee, sterile female worker bees – who carry out essential tasks to keep the hive running smoothly - and male bees. Social bumblebees create nests in a variety of spaces depending on the species, including in old mouse holes, compost heaps, nest boxes and roof eaves. Unlike honeybees, the nest is only used for one season. The queen bee hibernates over winter and sets up a new nest the following spring.

The most commonly encountered social bumblebee species include:

• Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
• White-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum)
• Common carder bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum)
• Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
• Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
• Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)

For more information on identifying different social bumblebees, see: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/how-identify-bumblebees

Parasitic ‘cuckoo’ bumblebees

A female cuckoo bumblebee will infiltrate the nest of a social bumblebee species, kill the resident queen, and assume control of the colony. Cuckoo bumblebees do not produce worker offspring; only reproductive females and males. The existing worker bees will continue to maintain the hive, look after her offspring and collect pollen and nectar. Consequently, cuckoo bumblebees lack pollen baskets on their hind legs.

The most commonly encountered cuckoo bumblebee species include:

• Vestal Cuckoo Bee (Bombus vestalis)
• Field cuckoo bee (Bombus campestris)
• Forest cuckoo bee (Bombus sylvestris)
• Red-tailed Cuckoo Bee (Bombus rupestris)

3. Solitary bees

Over 90% of UK bee species are classed as solitary bees. Unlike social bees, these species do not form colonies, produce honey, or have a queen. Instead, they live on their own and only interact with others for mating.  After mating, each female builds its own nest. The larvae hatch and develop, pupating in autumn and hibernating over winter. 

Solitary bees can broadly be grouped into those that nest in the ground - often in lawns, paths, or areas of loose soil - and those that nest above ground. Aerial nesters make use of natural spaces such as hollow plant stems and dead wood, as well as artificial habitats like bee hotels, to create nests for their developing larvae.

The most commonly-encountered solitary bees include:

Red mason bee

A small, ginger bee that nests in holes in walls, hollow plant stems and bee hotels. It creates cells with mud and pollen and lays a single egg in each until the cavity is full. The hole is sealed with mud.

Tawny mining bee

A bright ginger bee that nests underground, building a little volcano-like mound of soil around the mouth of its burrow. Nests can often be seen in lawns and flowerbeds in gardens and parks.

Ashy mining bee

The ashy mining bee is a similar size to a honey bee, with striking black and ash-grey or whitish hairs. Each female digs a nesting burrow in a patch of bare or almost bare earth, such as on a well-trodden footpath, a patchy lawn, or a heavily-grazed field. 

Leafcutter bees

There are many types of leaf-cutter bees in the UK, with one of the most prevalent being the patchwork leaf-cutter. 

The female bee uses her strong mandibles to cut precise, circular pieces from the edges of leaves or petals. She then carries these leaf pieces back to her nest, which is typically constructed in pre-existing cavities, such as hollow stems, holes in wood, or bee hotels.

Once at the nest, the bee uses the leaf pieces to line the walls of the cavity, creating a series of cells. Each cell is carefully constructed with leaves to form a protective chamber for the bee's offspring. After lining the cell, the female bee deposits a mixture of pollen and nectar inside, which serves as food for the developing larvae. She then lays a single egg on top of the pollen mass and seals the cell with another leaf piece. This process is repeated until the nest cavity is full of cells.

Nectar and pollen collection

Bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers. Nectar provides the bees with energy to fly, and any excess nectar is transported back to the hive. Nectar is used by honeybees in the production of honey, which is used as food to sustain the colony over winter. Bumblebees do not produce honey because they die off before winter (aside from the queen).

Nectar is also mixed with pollen (a primary source of protein, fats, and essential nutrients) to create ‘bee bread’ to feed to the growing bee larvae.

Pollination

Some bees are better at pollination than others. Contrary to popular opinion, honeybees aren't that efficient at pollinating, as they have smooth bodies and collect pollen in tidy balls (known as pollen baskets) on their back legs. Bumblebees have furrier bodies and therefore can be completely covered in pollen, which easily falls from one flower to another. However, they still comb it off and store it in tidy mounds on their legs. Some species of solitary bee are the most efficient pollinators of all, because they collect pollen on the hairy underside of their bodies. It's thought that one red mason bee can pollinate the same amount of apple blossom as 125 honeybees.