These Bees Fell Fast Asleep in Flowers (and We Think It’s the Cutest Thing Ever!)

Out of over 20,000 bee species worldwide, most of us are probably familiar with worker bees that live in hives and nests, like honeybees and bumblebees. This adorable post from sociaty shows exhausted bees with their fuzzy legs and bottoms hanging out of their temporary lodgings. Curiously, it’s male bees you’ll most often find sleeping in flowers. Yet, why are they passed out like this? Plus, why do they need to sleep in flowers if they have hives and nests they could go home to?

Why Do Bees Sleep in Flowers?

Social bees, also called “eusocial,” live in colonies and have one central nest or hive. These sites primarily house a queen and the female workers. The female workers and male bees, called drones, generally live a few weeks to a few months, while queens average 1-2 years. Honeybee drones live in the hive for a short time. Their only job is to mate with the queen. However, in the fall, the workers force them out to conserve resources. Bumblebee drones and future queens leave the nest when they mature at roughly 5-6 weeks. Females can return to the nest, but males leave for good to mate with queens from other colonies. With no homes to return to, it’s no surprise these bees search out a flower for shelter, a snack, and a nap.

Although social bees are more familiar, in the U.S., 98% of bee species are solitary. So, they live on their own, not in hives or nests. Most solitary bees only live for about a year. However, their active adult period only lasts for about 3-8 weeks. Solitary females must do all the work themselves, including building their own nests and collecting their own nectar and pollen. Similar to social male bees, solitary male bees’ only goal during their short adult lives is to mate. So, without a communal nest or hive, solitary male bees often sleep in flowers. This allows them to be on the spot to compete for the females that come to gather nectar and pollen.

Bee Sleeping Habits

Bees get tired and require rest like we do. Chasing off rivals and flying around in search of food and mates requires a great deal of energy. Foraging bumblebees expend about twice the amount of energy as honeybees. The majority of bees are diurnal, which means they are active during the day and rest at night. Most bees are unable to see in the dark anyway because they require the polarized light rays of the sun to navigate.

While forager honeybees have been documented to sleep between 5-8 hours at night, little is known about the sleep patterns of other bee species. This is especially true for bees that sleep outside of a hive. There is a greater threat of disturbances due to weather, predators, pesticides, and light pollution, among other things. Some bees are also bothered by noise and vibrations.

Strange Bee-havior

Bees sleep in odd positions because they hold on to their flower “beds” with their legs or mandibles, which are their movable lower jaws. This puts them face-first inside the flower. When bees get tired, they show signs of fatigue such as lethargy and confusion. Researchers have even documented bees falling over sideways because they were so worn out. So, some of the bees could have been snacking when overcome with exhaustion. During sleep, their metabolic processes slow down as well. Their antennae droop, their wings rest on their backs, and their legs fold under their bodies, dropping their heads and tucking in their tails.

As for why they are covered in pollen, drones may not be active pollinators, but they can still get it on their bodies when drinking nectar. Fortunately, the pollen can then sometimes be transferred to other flowers. There are also male bees that eat pollen, which can be a messy process. Some may view drones as lazy because they live to mate and eat, but the bees in these photos look like they’ve been working hard. Since some bees can become aggressive when disturbed, experts recommend that it’s best to let sleeping bees lie.