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The Worker Bees


	The Worker Bees Oh, that long brown thing on the far right is the "proboscis" ... it works like a turkey baster .. little muscles suck nectar up into it. When it isn't in use it folds up under the bee's head. Copperas Cove, Texas 20 August 2009 Jim Baines

- Jim Baines

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The bees that most of us see routinely as we go about our nature photography are the worker bees. The young worker honeybee, about half an inch in length, begins her adult life as you might expect, by dusting and running the vacuum in her birth cell. She then dons a white cap and assumes the duties of nurse bee, a role that will last for a week or more. She spends the next week within the hive wearing her tool belt and back brace, constructing new honeycomb, producing wax, and repositioning food and nectar stores. She then straps on her pistol and spends several days guarding the entrance to the hive. Finally, when she reaches bee maturity, she takes wing, visiting many dozens of flowers during her every expedition, gathering pollen and nectar. Arriving back at her hive, she performs a sophisticated and highly structured dance that points the way to the source of her bounty. She, with perhaps 40,000 of her sisters, will fly tens of thousands of miles within our neighborhoods to visit millions of flowers (and our hummingbird feeders) to produce a single pound of honey. In the event of a threat to the hive, she produces special scents to raise the alarm. Her scout sisters produce a special scent to signal the location of promising flowers. If born in the spring, she can expect to write her epitaph in about six weeks ... if born in the fall, she can delay it until the following spring.

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August 22, 2009

Michelle Alton

An incredible shot, and the informative narrative is beautifully composed too. Very entertaining entry!