The honey bees have to sneak out and visit the blossoms into between the rain showers lately and hopefully they will have enough honey stored before winter arrives.
Honey Bee Still Collecting
Picture of the Day for January 23, 2020
There was stuff flying in the air today but it wasn’t bees or insects but those snowflakes again. It will several more months before there are any blossoms for the bees to come and collect pollen from.
Collecting Pollen
Picture of the Day for September 16, 2016
As the leaves begin to display autumn colors, the flowers seem to fade into the background with just a few reminders of summer blossoms remaining like the wild asters which are providing nectar for bees and butterflies.
Monarch Enjoying Wild Asters
Picture of the Day for October 19, 2015
A lot of work is happening outside on one of the last warm autumn days; from yard work, crop harvesting and even bees gathering the last offering of pollen to store as honey for the long winter.
Busy as a Bee
Picture of the Day for October 21, 2014
The pinks and purples of the late blooming asters are adding to the range of autumn colors.
Range of Autumn Color
Picture of the Day for October 14, 2014
It is not fun to be out in a misty, foggy day but it does provide some different captures of flowers as long as I can keep my camera dry.
Misty Aster
Picture of the Day for January 22, 2014
After watching the snow flying by creating white outs, I rather have a bug fly by and see a field waving purple instead.
Wild Asters
Picture of the Day for October 14, 2013
I think the fall asters are bright purple just so they don’t get lost and overlooked in the yellows and other autumn leaf colors.
Yellow and Purple
Picture of the Day for October 4, 2012
The landscape turns to red, orange, yellow and brown in the fall with turning of the leaves, but if you look down while out leaf peeping, you might spot some purple too like this aster.
There are over 120 species of the genus aster found in the United States and are primarily known for their fall flowering. The late blooming flower provide nectar for the butterflies, bees and other insects. In the winter, the heads provide seeds for tree sparrows, grouse, goldfinches and chipmunks. But then my chipmunks just eat out of the bird feeder.
Wild Purple Asters
Picture of the Day for September 24, 2012
The honey bees should be out in full force today collecting pollen for winter storage, once the temperature warms up some more. In cold climates honey bees stop flying when the temperature drops below about 50 °F and crowd into the central area of the hive to 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 between 81 °F at the start of winter during the broodless period and 93 °F once the queen resumes laying. 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 °F. The colder the weather is outside, the more compact the cluster becomes. During winter, they consume their stored honey to produce body heat. The amount of honey consumed during the winter is a function of winter length and severity but ranges in temperate climates from 30 to 100 lbs and maybe more for here since it can get rather cold in January.
I don’t know how big the hive is that I have in an old oak tree since the bear wasn’t able to rip the tree open but left plenty of claw marks in his attempt. There has been a steady traffic in and out of the tree when I watch but there is one less worker bee since when it was getting a drink of water at the pond, a frog ate it, although it took two tries so the frog might have got stung on the tongue!
Honey Bee at Work
