Asters, honey bees, 06 October 2025

It was +28 C and the asters were full of honey bees. Note: the accumulation of yellow substance on the honey bees legs are (what I call) pollen sacks: "Honey bees collect pollen in specialized structures on their hind legs called pollen baskets, or corbiculae. These are concave cavities lined with stiff hairs where the bee packs the collected pollen, mixed with some saliva, to carry it back to the hive. This nutrient-rich pollen is a primary food source for the colony's larvae." 

Honey bees and asters, 04 October 2025

 04 October 2025 at 3 p.m., it’s 25 C.      

    

It’s the last of summery weather before October asserts itself with cold weather; honey bees are visiting the asters, they are in bloom late September and early October. It’s the bees' last chance to collect pollen and nectar and then we all face six month of cold weather. Photographs taken with my IPhone.

Asters and honey bees, 28 September 2025

When asters bloom in September

honey bees arrive, not seen

most of the summer

the bees collect

         this final nectar 

and pollen, 

it is too much 

for them to ignore

         at summer's end