We managed to celebrate the spring a bit by catching a few queen bumble bees for Jeremy’s summer project. I never imagined we’d be allowed in to the Missouri Botanic Gardens with insect nets, so it was wonderful to be granted permission to collect a couple of queens and great fun to be able to do so on a day when the gardens were closed to the public. We then traveled to the Litzinger Road Ecology Center where James Faupel and an intern joined us to wrap up our captures.
Few things are more fun than hearing a buzz, spotting a queen, and running at her with a net. It is like being in a living Far Side cartoon. Beautiful morning and great to be doing science together after a long COVID winter.
We saw quite a few bees around the crabapples. 
One of the queens, who was quickly moved into a nestbox in the lab. 
Virginia bluebells are usually a guarantee for spring queens, but not on this day. 
Jeremy and his first bee! 
Rachel caught the first bee of the day!
Dunlap Cognitive Ecology Lab 