Always rating high in my personal favorite insects is the humble but charismatic Bumble Bee, one of our most active pollinators here in the Uk. Bumble Bees are the largest, hairiest and gentlest of all the Bees. Their tiny wings beat more then 130 times per second to keep that body moving from flower to flower.

Bumble bees are very docile and love to nap inside flowers. They rarely sting people but if you do annoy one it will warn you that it’s not happy by waving it’s little leg in the air to tell you to back off!

They are pretty solitary Bees but can live in colonies of up to 500, where as the active Honey Bee lives in a hive of up to 50,000.

There’s approximately 150 Bees in my latest piece ‘Hum of White tailed Bumble Bees’ they are reverse painted and gilded in Silver and 24kt gold leaf.