Gaillardia (blanket flower) and Apis mellifera (Western honeybee)
Winter bees
As summer slides into autumn, these honey bees know what's coming next. The days are getting shorter and the nights are definitely colder. These are the last blanket flowers of the year and are rapidly producing their seedpods. Meanwhile, honeybees are in a frenzy of activity and on a sunny afternoon they're out in full force. Metaphorically speaking, these worker bees are filling up the shelves with jars of honey so that the queen can survive the winter.
Soon the 'winter bees' will emerge, a special caste of honey bees responsible for keeping the queen warm and well fed. Worker bees typically live about six weeks but winter bees are larger and fatter (and live much longer). They stay wide awake through those cold months, clustered into a small ball, eating the stored honey and shivering their flight muscles to generate heat. The queen will resume egg laying in late winter and that next generation will be the honey bees you'll see flying around next spring.
