AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2017 • NEBRASKAland 25
of her offspring by herself, and all
of them mature into female workers.
Those workers then take over all the
foraging and childcare duties, including
collecting food for the queen, who no
longer needs to leave the nest.
If the workers are able to find
sufficient food, the colony can grow
quickly. Queens produce females
from fertilized eggs and males from
unfertilized eggs. Workers don't mate,
but can lay unfertilized eggs that turn
into males. Some females are fed
enough that they become potential
future queens. A healthy colony can
produce 20 or 30 queens by the end
of the year, and up to 100 or more in
some cases. Those queens mate with
males and then seek out protected
places in which to ride out the winter.
All of the remaining members of the
colony die at the end of the growing
season, including the original queen.
As relatively large and strong insects,
bumblebees can fly nearly a mile from
their nest to forage – much farther than
most other bee species. They are fairly
The American bumblebee
(B. pennsylvanicus) is
declining in many areas,
including eastern Nebraska,
but it is still fairly common
in central and western
Nebraska.