I have known for years that when a bumble bee tilts its body sideways a little, then extends a leg upward, this tends to be a defensive response in reaction to a threat. It's a bit like the bumble bee's way of saying 'Get away from me!' or 'Leave me alone!'
Bumblebees are generally very docile, but they should still be given space and respect. According to BumbleBee.org, a bee will stick up a middle leg if it's annoyed by your presence, which means “back off!”.
The ripple of bees, or bees doing the wave, is a response to the predatory threat of hornets hovering nearby. They move their abdomens in sync as a defensive wave that may confuse the hornets. But they end up looking more like people doing the wave in a stadium.
So Why Do Bees Shake Their Bums? Bees shake their bums or “waggle dance” to communicate the location and distance of food sources. By varying the duration, speed, and angle of the dance they convey important information about the direction and quality of the food source to their fellow bees.
At some point, worker bees take on the task of maintaining the temperature in the hive. Some fan their wings to circulate the air inside the hive. Others place themselves outside the hive entrance to fan fresh air into the hive.
A dying bee may have tattered wings and can be seen writhing on the ground. A tired bee, on the other hand, may appear slower and more lethargic but will still have intact wings and respond to external stimuli.
You aren't being mistaken for a beehive, but you just might smell sweet to the bees. Flowery scents don't just smell good to humans, but bees can find those scents also attractive thinking that a flower full of pollen is near! So, take it as a compliment that your chosen perfume is liked by buzzing bees!
Honeybees pick up dead or diseased nestmates and drag them out of the hive. Removing corpses protects against infection, which can spread like wildfire in densely packed hives. “The honeybees work together to fight off disease,” says Alison McAfee at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
When a queen bee is first born and until she takes a mating flight, she is called a virgin queen. The worker bees don't yet recognize her as the queen, and will chase her around the hive, nipping at her, until she takes a mating flight.
In fact, nectar collected from flowers is stored in an organ called the “honey stomach.” The honey stomach is actually a part of the bee's esophagus. But the honey stomach—also known as the honey sac, crop, or ingluvies—is a specialized organ designed to expand and store nectar until it can be carried back to the hive.
They may fly at your face or buzz around over your head. These warning signs should be heeded, since the bees may be telling you that you have come into their area and are too close to their colony for comfort both theirs and yours!
“Just as a rattlesnake will vibrate its tail as a warning, the first honeybees out of a hive will bump the person invading, saying 'Leave! '.”
Protecting the nest
Despite being much larger, male carpenter bees will often hover a few inches from a human to inspect you as you enter their territory. Thankfully male carpenter bees do not have a sting so they are purely an annoyance more than anything else.
Feeling threatened
Well it's quite simple really. If the bee is on a flower or other surface and is feeling threatened it will raise one of its middle legs. This is a sign that you are too close and should back off a bit. The Bombus impatiens in the photograph above is showing this defensive behaviour.
A new study suggests bees can feel pain. It's a big deal in the quest to determine whether or not insects are sentient.
Bees rest and sleep at night. Which might seem obvious, but it wasn't studied scientifically until the 1980s when a researcher called Walter Kaiser observed their sleep-wake cycles and found that honeybees sleep an average of five to seven hours a night.
Our colleagues and friends from other queen producing companies report the same; queens, whatever their genetics, simply don't sting humans. In the miniscule times where it has been reported that a queen actually has stung a person, we have heard that the sting is not as painful to a person as that of a worker bee.
Queens, who are responsible for producing and laying eggs, live for an average of two to three years, but have been known to live five years. Domesticated honey bee queens may die earlier, as beekeepers "re-queen" the hives frequently.
When a virgin queen emerges, she locates other virgin queens and eliminates them one at a time. In the event that two virgin honey bee queens emerge simultaneously, they fight each other to the death. Queens control their workers by releasing pheromones known as the queen's scent.
Fascinating facts. It was the first record of sleep in any invertebrate. Honeybees sleep between 5 & 8 hours a day. More rest at night when darkness prevents them going out to collect pollen & nectar.
A colony of honeybees only has one queen. If there is more than one, they will fight to the death. The queen is the only bee in the hive that can lay eggs and is the mother of all the other bees.
When bees are close to death, they often cling to flowers and look quite lethargic. When they do die, they then drop off the flowers, and you may find a number of these in your gardens, especially near the most bee-friendly plants.
If a bee lands on you, don't make any sudden movements
When a bee or wasp lands on you, it's better if you sit still and just try brushing them off gently.
The bees don't really interpret that fear as anything more than a threat and so, they react accordingly, letting every other bee know that "something is up." Basically, bees cannot literally smell fear, but if you are fearful, your body will release certain pheromones, which bees can detect as a threat.
Bees cannot directly smell fear, but they can detect fear through pheromones released when a person or animal is afraid. Bees are sensitive to body language, movement, and scents produced when humans are afraid or stressed. To avoid negative interactions with bees, remain calm and avoid sudden movements.