Queen Bumble Bees???????????????????

Question

Ok I'm really confused now. I was watching bumble bees on my passion flower but I saw a bee that looked 2-3 times bigger, is this a queen? I thought the new queens emerged at autumn. If this is a queen what was she doing?

Also would you say this is in the right category? I wasn’t sure.

Answer 1

The only time you might see the queen bee is if she is swarming.  Unless there were a jillion worker bees there with her, it is unlikely it was a queen.

Answer 2

The larger one was [probably a carpenter bee..they also pollinate flowers

Answer 3

here's a pic of a queen and a worker and a male..

http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee....

I'm wondering if maybe you saw a different species of insect?... right off I can't think of anything that would be 2-3 times bigger than a bumble, unless it was a hummingbird moth....

http://www.ontariowildflower.com/images/...