08/29/2026
Bumblebees are fantastic pollinators of crops such as tomatoes, peppers, blueberries and cranberries. A single mated queen overwinters and emerges in early spring. She finds a place to establish her colony and begins laying eggs. Unlike honeybees, the queen bumblebee initially does all the work; foraging, incubating and protecting. When her daughters emerge they become workers and the queen focuses on creating more bees. In late summer she focuses on reproducing and making new queens and drones (males). These new queens mate and eventually all of the workers, drones and the old queen dies. Only the newly mated queens survive the winter and emerge again in spring to start the cycle again. When you see them in early spring, please let them be, as she may be the o my member of her colony.
