Bumble Bee behavior? Chasing each other? ?

Question

I saw a bumble bee today that was following around another one. The one was minding its own business going flower to flower and the other one was following it. It never touched it, just flew beside it. I was wondering if anyone knew why it was doing that?

Answer 1

Bumblebees that leave the hive are all male, so any of the previous answers having to do with mating are regrettably incorrect. More than likely, they were from the same hive and the other was picking up on pollen duty or something, picking up what the other drops and taking over when it's amount got too heavy. The bee being followed may also have been a newly fledged offspring, out for a first flight and in need of a little assistance.

Answer 2

it was porbably trying to make its move and mate

Answer 3

One was a baby and it was just learning from a smarter bee on how to collect pollen.  :-D

nah, idk

Answer 4

They were wingmen? lol idk, good quesiton though

Answer 5

I have seen this behavior in carpenter bees guarding the nest, so it may be possible the follower was patrolling around the nest but was not more aggressive because the other bee was not too close to the nest.  But here all the bees are finished with their nesting and mating behavior, or at least I haven't observed any.  I suggest you spend more time observing the bees and see if you can learn anything.  If they do anything significant, edit your question with a report, I'll watch this question to see if you come up with anything. (oops is this chatting)

Answer 6

It liked the *** of the other girly bumble bee and wanted to take it home to it's hive and make sweet sweet honey.