"You can’t just look for bees with their eyes closed"
May 25, 2019 9:42 PM Subscribe
Dr. Universe tells you about sleeping bees. Photographer Joe Neely took an adorable picture of some.
Awww. Ni-ni, sleebeeze.
posted by greermahoney at 9:58 PM on May 25, 2019
posted by greermahoney at 9:58 PM on May 25, 2019
oh my gosh she’s so snuffly
posted by Going To Maine at 10:03 PM on May 25, 2019
posted by Going To Maine at 10:03 PM on May 25, 2019
There was a little confused sleepy honeybee on a soil bag at work today. I needed that soil bag- a customer had just bought it, so I gently lifted the bag up and tilted it so miss bee could slide onto another bag, and I could get this one into the customer's car. I hope miss bee woke up a bit and flew to the back where she could sup on all the pollen she wanted. Great post Johnny.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:10 PM on May 25, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:10 PM on May 25, 2019 [9 favorites]
Eeeeeeeeeeee bzzz bzz bzzzzzzzz*
*How cuuuuuuteeee in Bee
posted by Hermione Granger at 10:13 PM on May 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
*How cuuuuuuteeee in Bee
posted by Hermione Granger at 10:13 PM on May 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
Sleep in non-human animals is a fascinating subject, I think. Invertebrates as simple as jelly fish have been shown to sleep. Birds, and some lizards, are able to sleep one brain hemisphere at a time. During REM sleep, muscles become atonal - and that can cause various problems if you are sleeping standing up like a horse (they lie down to dream) or while in a tree like a chimp. The fact that humans don't sleep in trees like other primates, may have allowed us more time to dream.
In terms of duration: there is great variability: 19 hours per day for a bat, 3 hours a day for a giraffe, 10 hours a day for a chimpanzee.
When it comes to bees, it has been shown that sleep disrupts their ability to record information in their long term memory. This points towards a theory that bees dream - like we do.
posted by rongorongo at 11:01 PM on May 25, 2019 [18 favorites]
In terms of duration: there is great variability: 19 hours per day for a bat, 3 hours a day for a giraffe, 10 hours a day for a chimpanzee.
When it comes to bees, it has been shown that sleep disrupts their ability to record information in their long term memory. This points towards a theory that bees dream - like we do.
posted by rongorongo at 11:01 PM on May 25, 2019 [18 favorites]
For some reason, my brain read the post in Vizzini's voice. "Do you know what that sound is, Highness? Those are the SLEEPING BEES!"
Honeybees and bumblebees are adorable. Yellow jackets can go die in a fire.
posted by xedrik at 6:12 AM on May 26, 2019
Honeybees and bumblebees are adorable. Yellow jackets can go die in a fire.
posted by xedrik at 6:12 AM on May 26, 2019
A comprehensive guide to Yellow Stripey Things
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:38 AM on May 26, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:38 AM on May 26, 2019 [4 favorites]
The place I'm renting at has a large patch of untended bushland out the back, so we luckily get all sorts of wildlife around here. A few months ago I started hearing these little bzzzz's outside my window, and that's when I discovered that Australia has bees with blue butts (blue banded bees, they're technically called, but I can't imagine that anyone uses 'banded' instead of 'bum').
Like the teddybear bees they apparently sleep by biting onto a branch and hanging on all night (or males do; females nest in walls). One or two had been testing out the bare branches outside my window for I guess a place to spend the night. Not sure what the criteria for an ideal sleeping branch is- toothsomeness? Aesthetically pleasing grain? In any case when I come home late in the afternoon is about when they settle down to snooze, so I got to see over the next few days the word spread and two more come to sleep there, then two more, then finally eight bees! A little dude bee commune (of two (2) branches) had been set up outside my place. It was super cute to see them huddled up against one another on one little branch. And nerve-wracking when there's a huge thunderstorm- but they sleep like a log and storms don't bother them at all, not even being pelted by sheets of rain. I tried to set up an umbrella thing over them once but the surroundings make it impossible.
Sometimes when I woke up early I could hear them wake up also and go about their day, quiet buzzing arising from the silence of the morning. Sometimes one or two bees would sleep on one branch while the rest slept on another, and I'd wonder if there's some kind of bee drama going on, and they've been banished to the Other Branch. Or is it an introvert bee who just wants its own space? Hearing-sensitive bee who can't stand the bee snoring and is taking a break away from the racket?
Winter has just about set in and the flowers outside my window are sleeping, and the bees have left one by one. There was a lone one two weeks ago, sleeping there by itself- maybe it was just nearby when the sun set and needed a place to sleep. I haven't seen any bees since, but maybe when spring comes again they'll come back.
I have also encountered teddybear bees twice (also current abode)(unsure if same one both times). They've flown into my room on two occasions, but I didn't twig what it was until the second time. They're incredibly loud, and big. And fuzzy. Real thicc units.
posted by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were at 7:06 AM on May 26, 2019 [19 favorites]
Like the teddybear bees they apparently sleep by biting onto a branch and hanging on all night (or males do; females nest in walls). One or two had been testing out the bare branches outside my window for I guess a place to spend the night. Not sure what the criteria for an ideal sleeping branch is- toothsomeness? Aesthetically pleasing grain? In any case when I come home late in the afternoon is about when they settle down to snooze, so I got to see over the next few days the word spread and two more come to sleep there, then two more, then finally eight bees! A little dude bee commune (of two (2) branches) had been set up outside my place. It was super cute to see them huddled up against one another on one little branch. And nerve-wracking when there's a huge thunderstorm- but they sleep like a log and storms don't bother them at all, not even being pelted by sheets of rain. I tried to set up an umbrella thing over them once but the surroundings make it impossible.
Sometimes when I woke up early I could hear them wake up also and go about their day, quiet buzzing arising from the silence of the morning. Sometimes one or two bees would sleep on one branch while the rest slept on another, and I'd wonder if there's some kind of bee drama going on, and they've been banished to the Other Branch. Or is it an introvert bee who just wants its own space? Hearing-sensitive bee who can't stand the bee snoring and is taking a break away from the racket?
Winter has just about set in and the flowers outside my window are sleeping, and the bees have left one by one. There was a lone one two weeks ago, sleeping there by itself- maybe it was just nearby when the sun set and needed a place to sleep. I haven't seen any bees since, but maybe when spring comes again they'll come back.
I have also encountered teddybear bees twice (also current abode)(unsure if same one both times). They've flown into my room on two occasions, but I didn't twig what it was until the second time. They're incredibly loud, and big. And fuzzy. Real thicc units.
posted by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were at 7:06 AM on May 26, 2019 [19 favorites]
I used to walk in City Creek Canyon in Salt Lake City. In wild sunflower season, and after a rain, bumblebees sheltered in the sunflowers, for early morning viewing. It was so charming, that early morning gift. The rain washed sunflowers also smelled so wonderfully as they do, kind of like the first bite of a not quite ripe sunflower seed. The sleeping bees, the sunflowers, the raindrops, ummmm!
posted by Oyéah at 7:49 AM on May 26, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 7:49 AM on May 26, 2019 [4 favorites]
As long as they are not drinking my tears, I’m fine with bees 🐝
posted by fancyoats at 9:06 AM on May 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by fancyoats at 9:06 AM on May 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
From Johnny Wallflower's link above:
Paper Wasp ... will only attack if provoked
Yeah, but they're very very easily provoked. Like, just existing anywhere in their semi-near vicinity.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:22 PM on May 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
Paper Wasp ... will only attack if provoked
Yeah, but they're very very easily provoked. Like, just existing anywhere in their semi-near vicinity.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:22 PM on May 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
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