A Bumblebee Nest

In the far left hand corner of our front garden is a hole in the wall about half a metre from the ground. You can see it at the bottom left hand corner of the above photo.

It was Kourosh that noticed the bees coming and going from the hole.

There was a lot of coming and going and the bees were bringing lots of pollen so it was already an established colony.

The bumblebees did not have far to go for pollen as we have lots of Hypericum just a metre from their nest.

Over the Hypericum is growing some “wild” Sweet Peas. We brought the seeds from flowers growing wild in the south of France but they have no perfume and I believe the real wild Sweet Pea is perfumed. However, these flowers are vigorous and clamber all over the Hypericum every year, yet I have been unable to raise U.K. bought Sweet Pea seeds.

Sweet Peas are in the Fabaceae family and their flowers attract the bumblebees.

These bees look to me like garden bumblebees or Bombus hortorum, you can see its long tongue, that it sometimes does not retract while passing from flower to flower for the nectar.

While watching the bumblebees I noticed a little butterfly with trailing tails.

Checking on Google it looks like Lampides boeticus, also known as the long-tailed pea blue. Both names are quite a mouthful and, as always, please let me know if I get anything wrong.

It is always exciting to find something different in the garden but the bumblebee nest is a real plus for me.