Queen bumble bees are central figures in their colonies, responsible for initiating a new colony each year and laying all the eggs that will develop into future workers, males, and new queens. This article explores the duration of a queen bumble bee’s life, its stages, and influencing factors.
The Queen Bumble Bee’s Lifespan
A queen bumble bee lives for about one year. This lifespan includes her emergence as an adult, her mating flight, a period of hibernation, and the active phase of founding and maintaining a colony. Unlike other social insect queens, a bumble bee queen completes her entire life cycle within a single year. Her life concludes either with the natural end of her colony’s cycle in late summer or autumn, or earlier due to various environmental pressures. This single-season existence highlights the importance of each queen’s success for her lineage.
A Year in the Life of a Queen
The journey of a queen bumble bee begins in late summer or early autumn when she emerges as an adult from her natal nest. After mating with males, she feeds extensively, building fat reserves that will sustain her through the colder months. She then seeks a suitable, sheltered location, often underground, to hibernate for several months.
As spring arrives and temperatures rise, the queen emerges from her solitary overwintering site. She then locates a suitable nesting site, which could be an abandoned rodent burrow or a dense tussock of grass. She then forages for nectar and pollen to provision her initial brood cells.
Once the first cohort of worker bees emerges, the queen’s role shifts from solitary foraging to primarily egg-laying within the growing nest. These workers take over foraging and nest maintenance, allowing the queen to focus on reproduction. Towards the end of the summer, the queen produces a final generation of males and new queens, completing her reproductive cycle before the colony declines.
Factors Influencing Her Survival
The survival of a queen bumble bee is influenced by various environmental and biological factors throughout her life cycle. The availability of diverse floral resources is important, as queens require nectar for energy and pollen for protein, especially before and after hibernation, and during nest establishment. Insufficient food sources can hinder her ability to build fat reserves or provision her initial brood.
Predation is a threat, with various animals, including birds, spiders, and certain mammals, preying on queens during their active phases. The presence of diseases and parasites, such as the protozoan Crithidia bombi, can weaken a queen and reduce her chances of successfully establishing a colony. Exposure to these pathogens can occur during foraging or within the hibernation site.
Adverse weather conditions, such as prolonged cold snaps or heavy rainfall during spring, can impact a queen’s ability to forage and find a nesting site, leading to her death. Human activities also influence queen survival. Exposure to pesticides, even at low doses, can impair a queen’s foraging efficiency, navigation, and reproductive success. Habitat loss due to urbanization and intensive agriculture reduces the availability of nesting sites and diverse floral resources. Climate change, leading to unpredictable weather patterns and altered flowering times, can also disrupt her life cycle.