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Over recent months, the Trust has been buzzing with excitement as copies of The Bumblebee Book by Rachel Weston have made their way to early childhood learning centres across Aotearoa New Zealand! 🐝📚 A huge thank you to the Wright Family Foundation for their generous support in bringing this project to life and helping inspire our youngest learners to discover, appreciate and protect the wonderful world of bees. Our Enviroschools friends in Marlborough have been busy spread

FIRST LET’S LOOK AT THE BUMBLEBEES’ LIFE CYCLE SUMMER: Mature colonies produce new queens and the rest die out. New queens mate and most start hibernating in individual holes they dig in the ground. AUTUMN: Some queens come out and start nests but most remain hibernating WINTER: Queens hibernating. Some come out in late winter. SPRING: Most queens come out of hibernation and start nests. HOW BUMBLEBEES START NESTS IN NATURE Queens search for sheltered places wit

We’re so excited to launch a new initiative to bring Rachel Weston’s beautiful children’s book 'Bumblebee' into preschools across Aotearoa. As part of this project, volunteers will visit preschools, read the book to the children, and leave a copy behind for them to enjoy. Rachel — a valued member of our Board of Trustees — is also recording a short video reading to help guide and inspire your presentations. The books are currently being printed and are expected to arrive in l

🎥 New Videos from Board Member Nelson Pomeroy We’re excited to share two fascinating new videos created by our board member Nelson Pomeroy . 1. Tekapo School – To Catch a Queen Following the December visit to Lake Tekapo School as part of their “To Catch a Queen” project, Nelson took some of the queens back to Christchurch and reared colonies in his garage. This video shows how they were kept and details aspects of colony life. 1. Bumblebees from Lake Tekapo 2. Inside a Bumb

Bumblebee Trail at The Elms, Tauranga Another successful Bumblebee Trail was held at The Elms , Mission Street, Tauranga in January 2026. We had five stations all around these beautiful gardens for the kids to visit and learn some fun facts all about the wonderful world of bumblebees. Geoff gave several talks and there were prizes for the kids. The feedback was wonderful and Buzz O' Bumble, our new mascot toy, sure entertained the kids! Many thanks the The Elms for hosting th

New Zealand is home to four species of bumblebees but identifying each one can be challenging. We have collaborated with the University of Otago to create a helpful guide. Download the file and see if you are able to identify the various species. We show where each species is likely to be found and some of their important characteristics.

A fun project for kids to make using eco friendly materials

Spring is buzzing all around and the team at NZBCT will be out and about with fun talks and a brand new Bumblebee Trail for the kids. The...

Tekapo School There are four exotic Bumblebee species in New Zealand. One, Bombus subterraneus - the short haired bumblebee, is only found in the McKenzie Basin & parts of Southland. It is extinct in the UK and today it appears that population numbers are dwindling here in NZ. In late 2024, a program was established by Entomologist Rudd Kleinpaste, the New Zealand Bumblebee Conservation Trust (NZBCT), and Otago University, involving primary school children and the communities

Through the Garden to Table Trust program children are getting the opportunity to study the bumblebee in its own environment and learn about

Helpful tips for starting and maintaining a pollinator friendly garden Pollinators in New Zealand and across the world are in serious...

The Bumblebee Trust is taking part in a programme in the South Island to protect NZ’s rarest bumblebee – Bombus subterraneus – the Short...

Did you know there are only 4 species of bumblebee in New Zealand?

Keep up with the life cycle of New Zealand bumblebees month by month

Moving a Bumblebee nest - generally we do not advise that people move nests unless it is absolutely necessary.

The NZ Bumblebee Conservation Trust has had a busy time since starting.

NZ Bumblebee Conservation Trust (NZBCT) works to conserve, preserve and grow the species and numbers of bumblebees in New Zealand.

Tauranga author Rachel Weston has written two children’s bumblebee books. You can buy them right here.

Bumbleebees are fascinating to even the youngest. This is a display hive watched by little Robin Brunsden.

Download and colour in our picture of cute bumblebees in the flowers.