Why Late Summer Meadows Are Bumblebee Heaven

By mid-August the hay has been lifted and the second flush of wildflowers is in full swing. Field scabious, greater knapweed, wild marjoram, bird's-foot trefoil and the last of the thistles are opening in rough grassland, verges and old pasture — exactly what bumblebees need before winter. Colonies that began in spring with a single queen are now producing their final generation of new queens and males, and every one of them is feeding hard.

Warm, still, bright days are best. Bumblebees are sluggish before about ten in the morning and retreat to the grass as the light fades. Pick a sunny afternoon with little wind, walk slowly into the meadow and let the hum settle around you.

How to Read a Bumblebee: Bands, Tails and Size

You need no net and no microscope. Most identification comes down to three things you can note in a second or two while the bee works a flower.

• Bands. Count the pale bands — usually yellow, sometimes ginger — and note where they sit. The collar sits behind the head; the second band sits at the waist, where thorax meets abdomen. A third band on the abdomen is a strong clue.
• Tail. Look at the very tip and decide whether it is white, buff or red, and whether it is clean or smudged with another colour.
• Size and shape. Queens are noticeably bigger than workers, and a long, narrow face belongs to a different species from a short, round one.
• Pollen baskets. Shiny, loaded patches on the hind legs mean you are watching a female collecting food. Males have no baskets, longer antennae and no sting.

Stay a metre or two back and keep still. Feeding bees are curious rather than aggressive, and they will often work their way around to you.

The Buff-Tailed Bumblebee

The commonest bumblebee in lowland Britain, and the one to learn first. It carries two yellow bands — a collar and a waist band — then a tail that varies with the caste. Workers usually show a clean white tail, while queens show the buffish, brownish-white tip that gives the species its name. Watch for a large, round, bull-necked bee with a short tongue; it often bites a small hole at the base of deep flowers such as comfrey and runner bean to steal nectar. Nests go underground, in old mouse holes, under sheds and in compost heaps. Late-summer males are easily told by the tuft of yellow hair on the face.

The Red-Tailed Bumblebee

Unmistakable once your eye is in: a black body and a bright red tail tip. Queens are large and velvety; the smaller workers look like black dots until they turn and the red catches the light. Males carry yellow bands on the thorax and a yellow face. Look for red-tails on knapweed, thistles, ragwort and bird's-foot trefoil, and check old walls, stone piles and tussocky grass for their nests. If you find a very similar bee with no pollen baskets, a duller maroon tail and no workers nearby, you are probably watching the red-tailed cuckoo bumblebee, which lays its eggs in the host's nest.

The Garden Bumblebee

This is the long-faced one. It carries three yellow bands — collar, thorax and the front of the abdomen — and a white tail. That elongated head lets it reach into foxgloves, honeysuckle, comfrey, deadnettle and red clover that shorter-tongued species cannot manage. To separate it from the white-tailed bumblebee, check the face length, count the bands and note where the white begins. Garden bumblebees nest at or just below ground level, sometimes in old bird boxes or under sheds, and their presence is a good sign that a garden or smallholding has plenty of old-fashioned flowers.

Other Bees You'll Meet

You will certainly bump into others while you are out. The common carder bee is ginger-brown and scruffy, with no clean bands. The tree bumblebee has a brown thorax, black abdomen and white tail, and often nests high in bird boxes. The white-tailed bumblebee resembles a buff-tail but keeps a clean white tail at every caste, and its workers are genuinely hard to separate in the field. Note what you see, photograph it if you can, and don't worry if a few get away — the looking is the point.

Keeping the Meadow Bee-Friendly

Identification is more rewarding when the bees keep coming back, and a few traditional habits do most of the work.

• Cut the meadow late, from mid-August once the knapweed and scabious have set seed, and cart the cuttings away so the grass does not thicken.
• Leave a third of the area uncut until spring, with tussocky grass, dead stems and old hedge bottoms standing over winter for queens to shelter in.
• Keep a shallow dish of water with pebbles in it so bees can drink without drowning.
• Avoid pesticides, and let clover, comfrey, marjoram and borage run wild where they will.

Do that, and a late-summer walk becomes a rolling survey — five minutes by the gate will tell you whether the buff-tails, red-tails and garden bees are having a good year.