Unlike most bees, which hibernate during colder months, honey bees remain active all winter long despite the freezing temperatures.

A honey bee colony’s ability to survive the winter depends on their food stores of honey. Once the colony begins to run out of honey, the worker bees force the useless drones from the hive, to maintain the food store.

As temperatures drop, the honey bee workers form a cluster around the queen and brood, keeping them warm. Bees on the inside of the cluster can feed on the stored honey. If surrounding temperatures rise, the bees on the outside of the group separate a bit, to allow more air flow. As temperatures fall, the cluster tightens, and the outer bees pull together.

As it gets colder, the worker bees actively ...

In a breakthrough, scientists have found that nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy HIV while leaving surrounding cells unharmed.

Researchers discover that bees and flowers communicate using electric fields.

"It turns out flowers have a slight negative charge relative to the air around them. Bumblebees have a charge, too.

The plant's electric field is changed by the proximity of that positively charged bee. And once the bee leaves, the field stays changed for 100 seconds or so. That's long enough for the altered field to serve as a warning for the next bee that buzzes by. She won't stop to investigate a flower that's already been visited." ...

Mason bees (Osmia avoseta) do not live in colonies. These solitary bees make their nests from collected flower petals. These tiny nests are about half an inch tall and hold a single egg. The mother glues the petals together with nectar and fills the inside with nectar and pollen before laying the egg inside, so that her offspring will have food when it emerges.