Don't ever say bumble-bees are dumb...

[SgtMaj]

I saw a big bumble-bee yesterday that was too big to get down in the flowers it was feeding from... other, smaller bumble-bees were foraging from these flowers the normal way with no problem, but these were small flowers and this was a big bee.  But instead of giving up on foraging from that type of flower, it would land on it, then crawl around to the back, and was biting into the back of the flower to get to the pollen or nectar or whatever it was foraging from it.  How smart was that bee?  I guess smart enough to have lived a long time.

[deejaycee]

It's a real common bumble bee behaviour.

Makes them no good for pollination though, as they chew straight into the nectary of the flower to get the nectar and bypass the pollen that the flower needs moved from anther to stigma.

nb - that's not to say bumblebees aren't great pollinators of some flowers - they are... but not those that they chew into the back of.

[rdy-b]

the good part when bombus chews a hole in the side is the honey bee can then enter through the side -i have heard this is comon with the  rabbiteyed blueberry-RDY-B