This afternoon I watched a dozen or more bumble bees gathering pollen from pink flowers in Nancy’s backyard. I got my picture for the day and then checked to see what I could learn about these creatures that seem much to big to fly with their tiny set of wings... to see if there is anything special about them. Of course, there is something special about every creature. Bumblebees are related to honey bees. They go about the business of gathering nectar and pollen in much the same way honey bees do. Bumble bee society is also much the same as bees. There is a queen in each hive and she detrmines all kinds of important things for the group... for instance, before she lay an egg, she decides whether to use sperm from her spermatheca to fertilise it or not. Non-fertilised eggs grow into males, and only fertilised eggs grow into females and queens. When she mates, she stores the sperm to use whenever she decides she needs more females.