There are over 20,000 species of bees in the world in nine recognised families. Bees are found on every continent except Antarctica, and in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. There are 101 species in Ireland in 2018, including the honeybee (1 species) and bumblebees (21 species). The remaining species are solitary bees, meaning they do not form colonies.

Bees are amongst the most important creatures to humans on Earth. These amazing insects pollinate over 80% of all flowering plants including 70 of the top 100 human food crops. One in three bites of food that we eat originated from plants pollinated by bees. Bees have been producing honey from flowering plants for the last 10 to 20 million years, and have been mentioned in ancient writings.

Honey Bee: Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are social insects that vary in colour, usually from a yellow-brown to a dark brown, depending on the type.

Their colonies includes a queen, drones and workers. Honey bees have been producing honey for over 100 million years.

Honey bees produce honey as a food source which they store in the hives and consume during the long winter months when there are no flowers blooming and there is no nectar around. They produce so much honey, more than they can eat and this allows there hives to be farmed and the honey made available to humans.

All honey bees live in colonies where the workers will sting intruders as a form of defence and alarmed bees will release a pheromone that stimulates the attack response in other bees. 

The Queen honey bee is the largest bee in the colony and the only bee capable of laying fertilised eggs. It takes 16 days from egg to emerging queen bee. The larvae in the queen cell is fed solely on Royal Jelly. After emerging the virgin queen spends 2 -3 days in the hive. She then takes her first flight to orientate herself with the location of her hive before flying off to the drone congregation area to be mated. A queen is capable of laying between 1,500 to 2,000 eggs per day.

The Drones of the colonies are all males. It takes 24 days from egg to emerging drone. They have no stingers and they do not collect pollen or food. Their main purpose is to mate with the queen. This may seem like an easy job, however, if the colony becomes short of food, they are the first to be kicked out! There are no drones in the hive during the winter months either.

The Workers are all females. It takes 21 days from egg to emerging worker bee. They are the smallest bees, but there can be around 50,000 – 60,000 of these workers in one single colony.

The wax produced by the workers is shaped into the honeycomb cell where the eggs are then laid singly by the queen into each cell. Larvae are initially fed with royal jelly produced by worker bees, later switching to honey and pollen. The larva undergoes several moulting’s before spinning a cocoon within the cell and pupating.

Young worker bees clean the hive and feed the larvae. After this, they begin building comb cells. They progress to cleaning and guard duty as they become older. Their last job is outside the hive as a forager collecting nectar, pollen, propolis and water.

Nectar is collected in their honey sac while pollen is collected in their pollen baskets. The scout bees leave the hive each morning to source the best nectar within a 5km radius. On return to the hive each scout bee performs the Waggle Dance to communicate the source of food, distance and direction. First they indicate the direction of the flowers in relation to the sun, straight up means toward the sun, straight down is away from the sun, etc. The second indicator is distance. They waggle their abdomen rapidly, the more waggles the further the distance. Finally, they offer some nectar from the flowers they discovered. The house bees pick the nectar with the highest sugar content.

BumbleBee:  As of 2018 there are 21 different species of bumble bee in Ireland. Bumblebees are large, hairy bees and are usually the most recognisable especially in Spring when the large Queen has come out of hibernation. Most species of bumblebee live in colonies, but their colonies are much smaller than the honey bees or wasps who can have up to several thousand individuals, the bumblebee colony will only consist of around 50 – 150 individuals.

Bumblebees will only sting to defend themselves and their colony, but unlike honeybees, they can sting more than once. 

Bumblebees do not store food (honey) to survive the winter. The little food they do store is saved to feed the larvae and the egg-producing queen, or is used to survive cold, windy and rainy days. Like their relatives the honey bees, bumblebees feed on nectar and gather pollen to feed their young. Just like social wasps, the bumblebee colony will die off at the end of summer. The new queens will then find somewhere to hibernate during the winter, usually underground and emerge to find new nesting ground ready to start a new colony in spring.

Bumblebees are very important pollinators to many plants, flowers and fruit trees. They can pollinate plants that other pollinators cannot due to their longer proboscis (tongue) and they don’t mind going out on overcast days. More and more bumblebees are used for pollination in commercial greenhouses.

Here at Bee Wise we have identified 6 different species of bumblebee – Buff Tailed Bumblebee, Red Tailed Bumblebee, Common Carder Bee, Early Bumblebee, White tailed Bumblebee, Shrill Carder Bee. 

Solitary Bee: There are 77 different species of solitary bee in Ireland. Solitary bees make up the largest percent of the bee population, with 90% of bees.

Solitary Bee: There are 77 different species of solitary bee in Ireland. Solitary bees make up the largest percent of the bee population, with 90% of bees being in the solitary category. As the name suggests, Solitary bees are lone bees, which means they do not belong to a colony.

Generally, they are absolutely harmless. Solitary bees create nests in hollow reeds or twigs, holes in wood, or, most commonly, in tunnels in the ground.

The female Solitary bee typically creates a cell which she lays an egg into and some food (nectar and pollen mix) for the larva when it hatches, then seals it off. A nest may consist of numerous cells. When the nest is in wood, usually the last (those closer to the entrance) contain eggs that will become males.

The adult Solitary bee does not provide care for the brood once the egg is laid and usually dies after making one or more nests. The males usually emerge first and are ready for mating when the females emerge. Providing nest boxes for solitary bees is increasingly popular for gardeners. Check out our ‘workshop’ area for more details.

Solitary bees are also important pollinators.

Yellow Jacket/Wasp: Yellowjackets (Vespula vulgaris) are social, hairless insects that measure about 16 to 25 mm long. Their main body is banded, usually black and yellow, but sometimes black and white.

They are known as scavengers because they feed on dead insects and animals. They also enjoy sweets such as soda and fruit, so can often be found at picnic areas waiting to steal a bite!

They often nest underground, sometimes in a deserted rodent hol