"Busy as a bee" When I was photographing these diligent little pollinators it became easy to understand where that saying originates from. They are constantly on the move from flower to flower, battling the hummingbirds for a taste of the succulent Penta juices.
I was only a few inches away hoping they were too busy feasting to pay attention to my voyeuristic intrusion into their world. They lifted off and buzzed around my ears but didn't retaliate by stinging me on the nose.
Now that the refreshing fall season has arrived the bumble bees have disappeared.
So I started to ponder do bees fly south with the birds for the winter? In case you're yearning to possess this bit of insect trivia here’s how the bees enjoy their vacation:
The following honeybee nuggets of knowledge are compliments of a great website called http://www.davesgarden.com
Honeybees have a very interesting method of winter survival. Honeybees stop flying when the weather drops below 50 degrees. When the temperature drops below that, the bees all crowd into the lower central area of the hive and form a "winter cluster." The worker bees huddle around the queen bee at the center of the cluster, shivering in order to keep the center around 80 degrees. The worker bees rotate through the cluster from the outside to the inside so that no bee gets too cold. The outside edges of the cluster stay at about 46-48 degrees. The colder the weather is outside, the more compact the cluster becomes [1].
Hibernating honeybees have been studied and shown to consume up to 30 pounds of stored honey during the winter months, which helps the bees produce body heat. Heat energy is produced by the oxidation of the honey, and circulated throughout the hive by the wing-fanning of worker bees [2]. Note the diagram at right.
On warmer days, bees will venture out for short flights to eliminate body waste. The flights do not last long nor do the bees travel very far because if their body gets too cold they might not be able to return to the hive [1].
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