If you want to see close-ups of honey bees, workers, and drones, then this is your video.
See the eyes of the drone and workers. See they hemolymph circulating in the translucent abdomen. Appreciate the marvel that is the honey bee. Split hairs cause a static charge as bees fly, which attracts pollen spores that are later groomed back to the hind legs. Amazingly functional in every detail, including the bee-toes and pads that allow them to stick to smooth surfaces so well.
If you enjoy videos like this, please let me know down in the comments section.
What's going on with these bees?
I go out every morning at sunrise and look over landing boards to evaluate what may be going on with each colony. Finding cast-off drones (male bees) is very common this time of year. I also gather workers, as in this case, to view and evaluate their overall condition. While placing some of these workers under the microscope, some of them began to move as they warmed up under the scope. I switched from still photography to video so I could share their intricate details and amazing movements. I do the same thing in winter when I find "dead" bees on landing boards and in snow, often to have several bees on the windows just hours later. Some are dying as they are at the end of their foraging life, others due to reasons we can't see.
The drone in this video was actually stung to death by worker bees. It's normal to see them casting out drones, but seeing them actively stinging one was new to me.
Thank you for watching and appreciating them at close range.
