A Gallery of Bumble Bees

I have always wanted to learn more about bees, and especially since the alarming news that the "bees are disappearing!" When one thinks of the repercussions that can come (besides honey shortage!), from losing our bees, its actually very alarming.

I have a butterfly garden with the main goal being to attract butterflies, obviously. Why not do something similar for bees, for what could it hurt? Could it even maybe help bees if we gardened more with them in mind?

Here are some pictures of bees that I have found over the years. I am especially happy to see honey bees coming around as its been more rare. Bumblebees seem to always be around and helping with the polinating processes. This gallery is dedicated in particular, to the larger bumble bees. I have another hub on just the smaller honey bees as well. A big thank you goes oout to "Davenmidtown" for helping me to identify the names of some of these bees. I really appreciate that and learning more about them is so cool.

Photos of Bumble Bees in Gardens

Photo 1 - This lovely long flower has a large bumble bee on it, and I like that I can see different parts of its body, especially its eyes. I love the flower itself, a purple and white colored, "soft looking" flower. It actually is pretty soft to the touch. This bee is called the Eastern Carpenter Bee.

Photo 2 - A bumble bee on large purple coneflowers, or echinacea. I love to grow echinacea in my butterfly gardens, and it kind of doubles as a bee garden too! This is a Two Spot Bumblebee.

Photo 3 - Bee on bright pink azalea flowers in Texas. I love these bright flowers, and I was trying to capture them, when I saw the bee there. What a nice surprise. This also is a Two Spot Bumblebee

Photo 4 - These blue forget me not flowers were growing in my Texas garden, and I love that this bee was having what seemed to be a great time going back and forth between all the flowers. Here, he is caught mid flight. Eastern Carpenter Bee

Photo 5 - Bee on some tiny white wildflowers. They seem to like a wide range of flowers. This also is an Eastern Carpenter Bee.

(More descriptions below)

Photo 6 (Above) - An Eastern Carpenter bee on some bright pink Pentas in Missouri. I love the pink pentas, and hope to grow some next Spring and Summer in my garden here. They are true favorites for butterflies and bees both.

Photo 7 - Big Eastern Carpenter bee on a bright orange marigold flower. I love his big eyes here, and how he was climbing around on the flower.

Photo 8 (Above) - These bees, both a honey bee and larger Eastern Carpenter bee are enjoying the same flower, an interesting little cluster of white flowers. Its neat to observe the different behaviors here of some creatures compared to others. There sometimes is conflict with a food source, and then often not. It just all depends on the bug or insect or animal and the scarcity I imagine.

Photo 9 - These little red tubular flowers seem attractive to this bee. Its one of my faovorite photos of these guys. This is a Yellow Bumblebee.

Here is a quote by Sri Sathya Sai Baba that I thought interesting,

"The honey in the flower or lotus does not crave for bees; they do not plead with the bees to come. Since they have tasted the sweetness, they themselves search for the flowers and rush in. They come because of the attachment between themselves and sweetness. So too, is the relationship between the woman who knows the limits and the respect she evokes."