Worker Bee

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Eliza Waters

IMG_1049The diligent and hardworking bumblebee – what would we do without her?

Bumblebee (Bombus grisceocollis) on Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

 

About Eliza Waters

Gardener, writer, photographer, naturalist
This entry was posted in Field Notes, My Photos and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

32 Responses to Worker Bee

  1. mk says:
    August 13, 2014 at 3:46 am

    You are too funny Eliza!

  2. kimberlyharding says:
    August 13, 2014 at 2:40 pm

    This was awesome! I love bees!! they are such a powerful totem.

    • Eliza Waters says:
      August 14, 2014 at 12:15 am

      Thanks, Kim. I looked up bees and they represent examining our productivity, mental, physical or spiritual. Am I getting the honey out of life? I’d like to think I am!

  3. Michael Genford says:
    August 13, 2014 at 5:13 pm

    Wow! Wonderful closeup!!! 🙂

  4. HostessAtHeart says:
    August 13, 2014 at 7:30 pm

    He looks like he is trudging up hill. He is a worker bee!

  5. lizard100 says:
    August 14, 2014 at 6:02 pm

    Glad you identified the worker as female : ) beautiful shot!

  6. dorannrule says:
    August 14, 2014 at 11:50 pm

    An amazing shot of another world…. a “small world” after all.

  7. ladyfi says:
    August 15, 2014 at 6:27 am

    Fabulous shot.

  8. Eva PoeteX says:
    August 16, 2014 at 7:04 pm

    Some people don’t realize how significant bees really are. It’s unsettling to think their populations are decreasing. Their ability to pollinate is essential to our food supply. Thanks for this post! I’m all for bee awareness. 😀

  9. woodlandgnome says:
    August 17, 2014 at 8:36 pm

    What a great macro shot, Eliza! It reminds me of a strange science show we watched last night. A scientist trains bees to “sniff” for drugs, chemicals, etc. with sugar water rewards. Each bee is then loaded up into a device which can be used by law enforcement and other screeners. When the bee smells the odor she has been trained for, she extends her tongue to get her sugary reward. The device records that tongue movement to register a “positive” test response.
    Who knew bees are easier to train than dogs for such work! Such intelligence in such a tiny package. So glad to see you have bees in your garden. Best wishes, WG

    • Eliza Waters says:
      August 18, 2014 at 9:16 pm

      Thanks, Elizabeth 🙂
      Crazy science! I wonder what kind of bees they use. I thought that they had really short life spans – like a week. who knows?

      • woodlandgnome says:
        August 19, 2014 at 12:35 am

        They looked like regular worker honeybees, Eliza. They live for longer than a week- a couple of months, if memory serves. Pretty labor intensive effort to train individual bees!

      • Eliza Waters says:
        August 19, 2014 at 5:21 pm

        I can’t imagine training a bee!
        I read online that they were originally used to sniff out minefields, which is a perfect application. Anything bigger than an insect would trigger the mine, pretty ingenious.

  10. Sharon K. says:
    August 18, 2014 at 11:26 pm

    Oh wow – what an incredible shot! So crisp, you can see every little detail. I love sunflowers and bees. A double treat!

    Thank you!

  11. Robbie says:
    August 19, 2014 at 3:25 am

    great shot…well we would not eat much without our humble workers that work around the stupid things us humans do to the environment:-) I am seeing more in my yard than I ever have:-) feels so good to see them covered in pollen and buzzing around all day! Makes me happy:-)

  12. dunelight says:
    August 28, 2014 at 12:14 am

    We have had a significant amount of colony die off in our area. My New England Aster is just starting to bloom (early, looks like another long winter) and I hope to be soon be surrounded by bumble bees and butterflies. This really is a marvelous shot.

  13. johannisthinking@wordpress.com; pedalpushingthoughts@wordpresss.com says:
    September 12, 2014 at 3:37 am

    Amazing shot! What a diligent bee! I do hope Monsanto is stopped and all the pesticides…I do not know what these people are thinking! Your BEE photo should be in every magazine and visual spot available!

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