Bumble bee vs honey bee comes down to clear differences: bumble bees are larger and fuzzier, live in small colonies that last a single season and can sting more than once, while honey bees live in huge year-round colonies and store large amounts of honey. Meet their soft cousins in our bee plush and bee stuffed animals collection.
Key takeaways
- There are 49 species of bumble bees in the United States (USDA Forest Service) and more than 250 known species worldwide (Penn State).
- Bumble bee nests are small, usually 50 to 200 individuals (Xerces Society), while honey bee colonies can hold 60,000 to 80,000 bees (Penn State).
- Bumble bee colonies are annual: only new queens survive the winter. Honey bee colonies are perennial (Penn State).
- Bumble bees do not make and store large quantities of honey like honey bees do (USDA Forest Service).
- Bumble bees can sting more than once (Xerces Society), but a worker honey bee dies after stinging because of its barbed stinger (UC Agriculture and Natural Resources).
Bumble bee vs honey bee: the 7 differences at a glance
The fastest way to compare a bumble bee and a honey bee is side by side: body shape, colony size, colony life, honey, stinging, nesting and pollination style.
| Feature | Bumble bee (Bombus) | Honey bee (Apis mellifera) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Body | Large, round and very fuzzy, with broad bands of color | Smaller and slimmer, with shorter hair and narrow stripes |
| 2. Colony size | Usually 50 to 200 individuals, up to several hundred | 60,000 to 80,000 individuals |
| 3. Colony life | Annual: one queen per year, the colony dies out in the fall | Perennial: the colony lives through the winter |
| 4. Honey | Stores only small amounts of nectar in wax pots | Makes and stores large amounts of honey |
| 5. Sting | Can sting more than once | A worker's barbed stinger stays in the skin and the bee dies |
| 6. Nest | Often underground, in old rodent burrows, grassy banks or compost piles | Wax combs, most often in hives kept by beekeepers |
| 7. Pollination | Buzz pollination: shakes pollen loose from tomatoes and blueberries | Generalist forager that visits many crops and flowers |
Sources for the table: USDA Forest Service, Penn State, Xerces Society and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (see the list at the end of this article).
How can you tell a bumble bee from a honey bee?
Look at the shape and the fuzz: a bumble bee is big, round and covered in thick hair, while a honey bee is smaller, slimmer and smoother, with narrow stripes on its abdomen.
Both bees belong to the same family and both carry pollen in a pollen basket on their hind legs, so they can look alike at first. A few simple checks help in the garden:
- Size: a bumble bee looks chunky and heavy in flight. A honey bee looks small and neat.
- Hair: a bumble bee is fuzzy all over, including the abdomen. A honey bee has a shinier abdomen with fine bands.
- Colors: bumble bees wear wide bands of black, yellow and sometimes orange or white. Honey bees are mostly amber-brown with darker stripes.
If you see a fuzzy, chubby bee shaking a tomato flower, it is very likely a bumble bee.
Bumble bee and honey bee colonies: how big and how long?
A bumble bee colony is small and lasts one season, while a honey bee colony is many times larger and survives from year to year.
According to the Xerces Society, bumble bee nests are "generally small, usually with 50-200 individuals," and they are only active from spring through summer. Penn State notes that by late summer and fall a bumble bee colony "can grow to contain several hundred individuals," compared with 60,000 to 80,000 individuals in a honey bee colony.
The bumble bee year
- Spring: a queen comes out of the ground, where she spent the winter, and starts a new nest on her own.
- Early summer: after about 3 to 4 weeks of development, her first female workers emerge and take over foraging (Penn State).
- Summer: the queen produces a few generations of workers (USDA Forest Service).
- Fall: new queens and males are raised. By late fall, the colony has died out except for a few final workers and males.
- Winter: new queens burrow into the ground. This diapause can last 6 to 9 months, without feeding (Penn State).
Honey bees take the opposite approach. Penn State describes bumble bees as "an annual species that have one queen per year, whereas honeybees are perennial species." The whole honey bee colony stays together through the winter.
Do bumble bees make honey like honey bees?
Bumble bees make a little honey-like nectar store for their own use, but they do not produce large quantities of honey the way honey bees do.
The USDA Forest Service explains that bumble bees "do not make and store large quantities of honey like honeybees." The difference comes from their life cycles. A honey bee colony needs a large honey supply to survive the winter, so workers keep filling their wax combs. A bumble bee colony dies out in the fall, so it only needs small reserves: the queen builds wax pots for nectar, and empty cocoons can be used to store nectar for a short time.
That is why beekeepers keep honey bees for honey, while bumble bees are valued mainly as pollinators.
Bumble bee vs honey bee sting: which one stings more than once?
A bumble bee can sting more than once, while a worker honey bee usually stings only once, because its barbed stinger stays in the skin and the bee dies.
The Xerces Society says plainly that "bumble bees can sting more than once," but adds that you are not likely to be stung by one. Only females have a stinger, and they generally prefer to retreat. Most stings happen when someone gets close to a nest or crushes or swats a bee.
Honey bee workers are different. As UC Agriculture and Natural Resources explains, a worker "cannot remove its barbed stinger without yanking out its abdominal tissue," so it dies after stinging. The honey bee queen can sting multiple times, and male honey bees (drones) have no stinger at all.
Both bees are generally calm when they are left alone. If you have a known allergy to stings, follow your doctor's advice.
Where do bumble bees and honey bees live?
Bumble bees usually nest in hidden spots on or under the ground, while honey bees build large wax combs, most often in hives kept by beekeepers.
The Xerces Society lists typical bumble bee nest sites: abandoned rodent burrows, grassy banks, compost piles and sheltered cavities, and for some species, abandoned bird nests above ground. A bumble bee nest is unlikely to be reused the following year, because the colony dies out and each new queen starts again somewhere else.
Honey bee colonies, by contrast, stay in the same home year after year. They build vertical sheets of wax comb where they raise young bees and store pollen and honey.
Which is the better pollinator?
Both are important pollinators, but bumble bees have a special skill called buzz pollination that makes them very efficient on crops like tomatoes and blueberries.
During buzz pollination, a bumble bee grips a flower and vibrates its wing muscles, making a buzzing noise that shakes pollen grains out of the anthers (USDA Forest Service). Penn State describes it as a specialized behavior of many large-bodied bees, used to release pollen hidden inside flowers such as blueberries and tomatoes. Tomato flowers make no nectar, so bees visit them for pollen only.
Honey bees are generalists that visit a wide range of crops and wildflowers, and beekeepers can move their hives to farms. Bumble bees are wild native bees in North America, with 49 species in the United States alone.
Curious about other animal look-alikes? Read also: Alligator vs Crocodile: Key Differences at a Glance.
Bring home a fuzzy bumble bee
A bee plush keeps all the round, fuzzy charm of a bumble bee, with no sting at all. Here are three bee picks from Mister Plush, in stock now:
- Bumble Bee Stuffed Animal: a yellow and black bumble bee filled with 100% PP cotton, in 7.8 or 11.8 inches, for kids 3 and up and bee lovers of all ages.
- Fat Bee Plush: a chubby 6.3-inch bumblebee with black stripes and white wings, small enough for a backpack or a desk, delivered with a dust bag.
- Sad Bee Plush: a 7.8-inch yellow and black bee with droopy wings and a gloomy little face, made to bring comfort on quiet days.
Looking for more cute companions? Explore our kawaii plush collection.
FAQ: bumble bee vs honey bee
Is a bumble bee bigger than a honey bee?
Yes, in most cases. A bumble bee is larger, rounder and much fuzzier than a honey bee, which looks smaller and slimmer, with shorter hair and narrow stripes on its abdomen. A worker honey bee also has a smoother, shinier abdomen than a bumble bee, whose whole body is covered in thick hair.
Do bumble bees make honey?
Bumble bees store small amounts of nectar in wax pots to feed their young, but they do not make and store large quantities of honey like honey bees, according to the USDA Forest Service. Their colonies die out every fall, so they never need the big winter honey supply that a honey bee colony depends on.
Can a bumble bee sting you twice?
Yes. The Xerces Society confirms that bumble bees can sting more than once, unlike a worker honey bee, which dies after stinging. Stings are still rare: only females have a stinger, they usually retreat when threatened, and most stings happen when someone disturbs a nest or crushes a bee.
How many bumble bee species are there?
There are more than 250 known bumble bee species around the world, according to Penn State, and 49 species in the United States, according to the USDA Forest Service. By comparison, the honey bee kept by beekeepers in North America is one species, the western honey bee, Apis mellifera.
Are bumble bees and honey bees the same family?
Yes. Bumble bees (genus Bombus) and honey bees (genus Apis) both belong to the bee family Apidae, and both females carry pollen in a pollen basket on their hind legs. They differ in body shape, colony size, colony life, honey storage and stinging, as the comparison table above shows.
Conclusion
In the bumble bee vs honey bee match-up, the bumble bee is the fuzzy, independent pollinator with a small one-season colony, while the honey bee is the honey maker living in a huge colony all year. Both deserve a place in the garden. Add a gentle, sting-free bee to your home with our bee plush collection.
Sources
- USDA Forest Service: Bumblebees (Bombus spp.)
- Penn State, Center for Pollinator Research: The Bumble Bee Lifestyle
- Xerces Society: Do Bumble Bees Sting? And Other Common Questions
- UC Agriculture and Natural Resources: Why Do Honey Bees Die When They Sting?
