During the coldest time of year, there are fewer flowers from which to collect nectar and honey bees are. Headbutts come as a surprise whoop whoop! As bees go, the 200 or so species of orchid bee are a curious bunch:
A cape honeybee foraging in red aloe flowers in southern africa the workers of a south african subspecies of honeybee can clone themselves, with one individual having done. Swarms of western honeybees can generate an electric charge of 1000 volts per metre, a voltage density greater than thunderstorm clouds and electrified dust storms Which insect is really worthy of all the buzz?
Bees get all the good pr compared with wasps, but how do their talents measure up? A few hundred workers can swarm into balls around hornets and roast them. A vibrational pulse produced by honeybees , long thought to be a signal to other bees to stop what they are doing, might. They are solitary and do not make honey.
No wonder the females aren’t especially enamoured. Honey bees make honey to store up as food to last them through the winter months.