# Google has fail me- queen bee or not?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 20, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911 "2010-08-20T20:26:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/1 "2010-08-20T20:26:47Z")
You’d think it would be easy to find a chart comparing the sizes of queens, drones, and workers, wouldn’t ya?
I saw ([and photographed](http://www.flickr.com/photos/9624983@N05/4910685377/in/photostream/)) a very large bee in the yard. Looked pretty much like a normal bumblebee, except for being nearly as long as my thumb. I figured she was probably a queen, but I decided to check online exactly how big the non-workers are. For all I knew it was a drone, or some different species altogether.
You’d think it would be easy. You’d think wrong. There are pictures of queens by themselves. There are pictures of queens and drones. (She’s a heckuva lot bigger then he is). There are lots of “sexy bumblebee” costumes cluttering up the search. But I can’t find a simple side-by-side comparison of a queen and worker.
If you manage to find one in three seconds of Googling, I’ll feel appropriately embarrassed. But I haven’t.
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/2 "2010-08-20T20:33:28Z")
[http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html](http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html)
Seventh hit [here](http://www.google.com/search?q=bumblebee+queen+size&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a).
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/3 "2010-08-20T20:43:48Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#):
>
> [http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html](http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html)
>
> Seventh hit [here](http://www.google.com/search?q=bumblebee+queen+size&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a).
You can determine the fit with that tiny little graphic?
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/4 "2010-08-20T20:45:34Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> You can determine the fit with that tiny little graphic?
What fit? I must have missed something. I thought the request was for a side by side photograph.
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/5 "2010-08-20T20:45:57Z")
Would a queen be on a flower gathering nectar? I though the queen only left the hive to go start another hive, and never left it again. But I’m ignorant about such things.
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### Author:  [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/6 "2010-08-20T20:57:25Z")
> [@Skammer](#):
>
> Would a queen be on a flower gathering nectar? I though the queen only left the hive to go start another hive, and never left it again. But I’m ignorant about such things.
Yes a queen would
Bumble bees colonies die off every year except for the queen who forms a new colony the next year. Plus new queens will be produced by the colony.
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### Author:  [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/7 "2010-08-20T21:05:06Z")
We used to get bumble bees under our house, some years there’d be a thriving colony other years nothing at all.
It doesn’t look like a bumble bee, but then again there’s other species of bumble bees and I’m not an expert beyond reading insects of the British isles.
A guess: perhaps it’s a drone of another species.
I don’t think there’s a massive amount of dimorphism between a bumble bee queen and workers as bumble bees are more primitive socially than other bees.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/8 "2010-08-20T21:12:44Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#):
>
> > [@Reply](#):
> >
> > You can determine the fit with that tiny little graphic?
>
> What fit? I must have missed something. I thought the request was for a side by side photograph.
Well, a side by side photograph with the implication that it was going to be used to gauge whether the bee in the OP’s photo was a queen.
That graphic doesn’t make the task any easier.
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### Author:  [@spenczar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spenczar)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/9 "2010-08-20T21:31:28Z")
The black spot on its back and the long black butt indicate that you’ve got a **drone carpenter** bee. See [here](http://countrycaptures.blogspot.com/2007/04/carpenter-bees-beautiful-destructive.html) for a picture that shows size. For a more entertaining picture, [here](http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/images/carpenterbees/peridita_minima_carpbee_lg.jpg) is a comparison between the smallest bee in the world, _Perdita minima_, and the largest, the female carpenter bee.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/10 "2010-08-20T21:35:48Z")
> [@spenczar](#):
>
> For a more entertaining picture, [here](http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/images/carpenterbees/peridita_minima_carpbee_lg.jpg) is a comparison between the smallest bee in the world, _Perdita minima_, and the largest, the female carpenter bee.
I will never sleep again.
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### Author:  [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/11 "2010-08-20T22:03:02Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#):
>
> [http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html](http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html)
>
> Seventh hit [here](http://www.google.com/search?q=bumblebee+queen+size&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a).
That’s a comparison chart?
_looks closer_
Oh, yes, now I see tiny faded male and female symbols next to them. I actually saw that pic, but I didn’t know what it was supposed to be.
**spenczar** - I saw something about bumble versus carpenter bees and I was wondering about that. We have plenty of normal-sized bees that look just like that (but skinnier, I guess). Then again, Professor Google tells me there are about eight zillion types of bumble bee, and some of the pics I saw looked like ours.
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### Author:  [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/12 "2010-08-20T22:22:20Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#):
>
> I saw ([and photographed](http://www.flickr.com/photos/9624983@N05/4910685377/in/photostream/)) a very large bee in the yard.
> .
Beautiful picture, BTW.
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/13 "2010-08-22T17:18:56Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> > [@Contrapuntal](#):
> >
> > What fit? I must have missed something. I thought the request was for a side by side photograph.
>
> Well, a side by side photograph with the implication that it was going to be used to gauge whether the bee in the OP’s photo was a queen.
>
> That graphic doesn’t make the task any easier.
Well excuse the fuck out of me, then.
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### Author:  [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/14 "2010-08-22T18:47:47Z")
> [@EdwardLost](#):
>
> > [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#):
> >
> > I saw ([and photographed](http://www.flickr.com/photos/9624983@N05/4910685377/in/photostream/)) a very large bee in the yard.
> > .
>
> Beautiful picture, BTW.
Thanks. _blushes_ I also took about twenty pictures of colorful blurs (some of them missing the bee entirely), but I won’t mention that.
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/15 "2010-08-22T20:11:18Z")
While it is true that Bumblebee colonies die back to the queen each year and it is possible that the queen would be out gathering nectar, it is very doubtful she would be out this time of year. That picture is most likely just a normal, unfertilized (but not sterile) worker bee. The queen typically on forages in the spring, this time of year she should be focusing on laying eggs.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/16 "2010-08-22T21:06:13Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#):
>
> > [@Reply](#):
> >
> > Well, a side by side photograph with the implication that it was going to be used to gauge whether the bee in the OP’s photo was a queen.
> >
> > That graphic doesn’t make the task any easier.
>
> Well excuse the fuck out of me, then.
Relax.
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-has-fail-me-queen-bee-or-not/550911/17 "2010-08-23T14:44:35Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> > [@Contrapuntal](#):
> >
> > Well excuse the fuck out of me, then.
>
> Relax.
Straighten up.