Spending the Night Away from Home

Santa Cruz Mountains, California

Who can say why bees chooses to spend nights away from the hive during hot summer months? Do they like variety? Are they outcasts from society? Did they lose their way home?

Was the nest disturbed by a predator? Are they transfixed by the power of pollen? Are they shirking their nest-y duties, or bullied by other bees at home?

One thing is clear: the bees are able to fly if they choose to before the evening temperatures drop. It seems to be a choice.

This very tiny bee, or perhaps its twin, spent several nights in our very tiny sunflower blossom. Only when the sunflower was faded and gone did the bee abandon its home away from home. Where did he or she go then?

Bees bivouacking in flowers overnight are novel but not unusual in our neighborhood. And yet, the chosen flower is always yellow.