The buff-tailed bumblebee is one of our more common garden bees. The queens start emerging from their winter torpor (like hibernation) in early spring. Queen buff-tails really do have a buffish brown tail and lovely gingery orange bands of colour. They have quite short tongues which does restrict the types of flowers that they can feed on.

This buff-tailed bumblebee (pictured) is a queen, feeding on cat mint (nepeta).

Buff-tails generally nest in old rodent holes. Their scientific name is Bombus terrestris, referencing their tendency to nest in the earth. A buff-tailed nest may have up to 400 adult bees at its peak.