THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE ORIGINALLY POSTED.
Whenever the bees have a chance to do anything that contributes to the survival of the colony, they do it, even if it kills them. After a week of not doing much of anything in freezing cold weather, the bees came pouring out of hives this morning, many of them coming back loaded down with pollen.
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I don’t know where they found the pollen, but I’m impressed. Here’s a cropped-in grainy shot:
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It looked as if the bees were shutting down for winter, but give them some early morning sunshine and temperatures hovering a little over 10°C (50°F), and away they go, making the most of what little warm temperatures are left in this year. And where is all this pollen coming from? A late-blooming field of Goldenrod must be close by. I don’t know.
I posted a few more photos in the Bees & Pollen photo album. Some videos may show up later on too. (Update: Here’s the video.)
UPDATE (Oct. 13/11): I still see plenty of these around. It’s like a cross between goldenrod and dandelion. The bees must have discovered a field of it somewhere.
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The bees are stuck in their hives most of the time now. It’s cold.
It’s those little yellow flowers that almost look like dandelions. they are taller and thinner than dandelions.
I don’t know what they are called though.
I just updated this post with a photo of the flower in question.
That’s not the one I’m thinking about but that would do it too.
we call them devil’s brooms or brush
I think Devil’s Brush is what Jeff was referring to. It looks like this:
http://www.redbubble.com/peopl.....urantiacum
It’s also called Orange Hawkweed, but around here it’s yellow.
The photo I posted is something else. Still trying to figure it out.
You are both correct. It’s the yellow/orange variety that I am seeing rather than the redish type.
It was amazing to see how much pollen was coming in on Sunday with the warm temperatures. There was also white pollen and a beige/light tan color pollen.