Oh To Bee In England Now That Spring Is There

This is my sixth sunny blip in a row (I did say I'd bring a little Aussie sun to the UK, if you remember).

It was even warm enough today for a few honey bees to venture out. Here's one with its face buried in a Winter Jasmine flower.

Apparently, honey bees stay warm in winter by clustering into a big bee ball within the hive with the queen at the centre and then - they shiver! This keeps the centre of the 'winter cluster' at around 26.5C ; the bees regularly move position so that none of them stays too long on the cool outer part of the bee ball.