Bedtime for Bumbles...

Male bumblebees (or drones) live a life of leisure.  Their sisters (workers) spend their days collecting pollen and nectar to feed a growing brood back in the nest.  Queens, once they have produced enough workers, spend their time laying eggs.  The drones have no job as part of the hive.  Their only job in life is to find a a young queen and mate with her so she can produce fertile eggs.  Because the hive they hatch in already has a queen, they are kicked out of the nest as soon as they mature.  They spend the rest of their life hanging out in places where a young queen might appear.  In other words they spend the day hanging around flowers.

Where do they go at night?

They spend their nights in the same place they spend their days.  If you look closely at the picture above there is drone tucked in underneath the flower.  Here is a closer look.

Not every drone works this hard at finding a resting place for the night.  In the same section of our garden I noticed three additional bumble bee drones.  These three had all decided just to sleep atop the flowers upon which they had most recently been feeding.

On cold nights these bees become very sluggish and docile.  If it is cold enough they become unable to fly.  It's okay to pick up drones - they cannot sting!  In fact drones lack a stinger.  The stinger is an adaptation of the body part a female bee uses to lay eggs (the ovipositor).  Drones never had ovipositors so they have no stingers.  These slugging drones may walk around on your hand in an attempt to get away or they may sit in place and vibrate their wings to generate enough heat in their muscles to fly.  In other words, they shiver when they are cold just like we do.

The next time you are outdoors early on a late summer morning see if you can find some sleepy bumble bees.