Four Little Bees All In A Row

The bee on the left was larger than the others & had a shiny, mirror like 'cap' on its head.
This afternoon as I went to complete the daily cleaning and refilling of the 5 quart sized hummingbird feeders I realized that it's bee season. The bees seem to feed as much as the hummingbirds - or at least they try to ! I took all but one of the feeders in and cleaned them, but left one outside so that I could take some photographs. The bees were obliging and could not be bothered to move - even as I changed the location of the feeder to get better light.

They were all so intent on feeding..nothing bothered them and almost nothing would move them. I hoped I wouldn't rile them up - since I can be very allergic to their stings. I don't know anything about bees except that I love honey and I am grateful to them and pray that their populations will not continue to decline. I wondered if the large bee with the shiny 'cap' might be a queen. Anyone know anything about bees?
Once all of the feeders were back in place all of the winged ones were content again - DH just brought home another 20 pound bag of sugar. That lasts about a week. Hard to believe that in another month or so the hummingbirds will have already left on their migrations....to leave me waiting for net Saint Patty's Day when they are generally back to the feeders. Recently we've had one or two over-winter guests (how the heck they do that is beyond me) and they have returned a week or so earlier each year. Next year I may have to consider adding a 6th or 7th feeder to keep everyone happy and content!

Comments

  1. Great pictures of the bees. I, too, hope for their future.

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  2. OH MY Heaventy sakes. These guys are just beautiful. Thanks for these pics...

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  3. Hey Gurlfriend! I get all my bee info from Birdchick.com. They raise bees. I'm sure these girls were all probably hungry and the easy food source of the sugar water did them good! The only time you'd see a queen out of the hive is if it was a new queen and she was in the middle of a swarm. That's when the new queen leaves the old hive and takes quite a number of her gurls with her to start new hives. The old queen would stay at the old hive with the remaining gurls. They have drones but I'm learning that there aren't many. Nearly all bees that you see are girls. It's quite fascinating really. I love these shots of the fuzzy gals. They are quite something given they are just tiny insects. I too adore honey & pray for their continued resurgence.

    xo

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  4. Ireally enjoyed this post . . Those bees are beautiful . . Thanks for sharing.

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