As busy as a bee

By Aaron Horrell

I watched this energetic little bee as it visited flowers on a rose-of-Sharon bush. Carpenter bees were tending the flowers as well, but this one was different. It was smaller, had more yellow and flew faster than the larger carpenter bees. This bee is a fuzzy little Bumblebee.

On (or should I say inside) flowers like the rose-of-Sharon, the bumblebee is a perfect pollinator. It is small enough to crawl easily to the base of the flower where the nectar is and in the process get covered in pollen.

The larger carpenter bees were doing the same thing, but the were slower and were having a bit more trouble.

Bumblebees will deliver a painful sting if you bother them. They nest in a colony, usually underground, and will vehemently protect their nest. Beware!