Bumble Bee's Morning Ritual

Sleeping bumble bee snuggling aster last September

In the spring and summer months, I spend a lot of time gazing at my garden. Each morning, as I stroll around the yard drinking my Earl Grey tea, I examine each plant attentively. One day last September, I noticed that a lot bumble bees seemed to be sleeping on my aster plants. They were hanging upside down clutching a flower or plant stem, not moving. Aster, at least the variety I have in my garden, grows all summer until finally thousands of tiny flowers with long slim purple petals burst open everywhere and the five foot tall plants suddenly buzz with hundreds of bees of all different sizes and varieties. It is a pollinator's heaven. I was curious about what the bees were doing. Do bumble bees sleep? Do they do it hanging on to plants? I went to the interwebs and found that yes! They do!

When the temperature drops below 60°F at night it's hard for them to move around, so they snooze. The coolest part is that when they wake up, they take a little bee bath and clean off their bee fur before getting back to work. The temperatures were beginning to rise, so I immediately went outside to have a look and I caught this lovely bee in the act! You should be able to see her rotating her front legs around so they scrape over her fur, cleaning off all the pollen dust. A bee can't be caught looking frumpy.

One of the coolest things ever! I hope you enjoy.

This is the first video I've posted on DTube, so I hope it works. Please excuse anything that is off. I'm just learning!

Photo and video by me: @orangina