Bee on Spring Willow Buds

by Donna Kennedy

Title

Bee on Spring Willow Buds

Artist

Donna Kennedy

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

Original Fine Art Photography by Donna Kennedy
Bee on Pussy Willow buds, Spring in Reno, Nevada

Honeybee (Apis mellifera) Honeybee hives have long provided humans with honey and beeswax. Such commercial uses have spawned a large beekeeping industry, though many species still occur in the wild.
All honeybees are social and cooperative insects. A hive's inhabitants are generally divided into three types. Workers are the only bees that most people ever see. These bees are females that are not sexually developed. Workers forage for food (pollen and nectar from flowers), build and protect the hive, clean, circulate air by beating their wings, and perform many other societal functions. The queen's job is simple-laying the eggs that will spawn the hive's next generation of bees. There is usually only a single queen in a hive. If the queen dies, workers will create a new queen by feeding one of the worker females a special diet of a food called "royal jelly." This elixir enables the worker to develop into a fertile queen. Queens also regulate the hive's activities by producing chemicals that guide the behavior of the other bees.
Male bees are called drones, the third class of honeybee. Several hundred drones live in each hive during the spring and summer, but they are expelled for the winter months when the hive goes into a lean survival mode.
Bees live on stored honey and pollen all winter, and cluster into a ball to conserve warmth. Larvae are fed from the stores during this season and, by spring, the hive is swarming with a new generation of bees.

Pussy willow is a name given to many of the smaller species of the genus Salix when their furry catkins are young in early spring. Pussy Willow trees are popular for it's soft, grayish, fur-like buds on long, straight stems. The buds begin to open very early in the spring. They make great indoor arrangements, and are long lasting. Bring them indoors to brighten the room.

Thank you to the Administrators that Featured this photo in the following Groups:
-Wisconsin Flowers and Scenery
-Macro Marvels
-Fine Art America Professionals
-Your Best Work
-Women Photographers
-Four Seasons
-Your Story of Art
-Your Very Best Photography
-Insect and Small Animal On Flowers
-Just Perfect
-Camera Art

Uploaded

May 7th, 2023

Colors

Embed

Share

Tags