Sleeping Yellow-Faced Bumble Bee

The first sleeping bee observed in our garden this year!

It was very breezy, cool and overcast most of the day, and this yellow-faced bumble bee was already sleeping on the Helianthus bolanderi "Serpentine Sunflower" at four pm.

I've noticed that bees love to sleep on sunflowers.

It is the male bees that sleep on flowers because once they emerge from their nests, they can't return.

I planted two Serpentine Sunflower seedlings a couple of weeks ago.

They are California natives, and only grow to three feet tall, thirty inches wide.

These sunflowers are said to produce many blooms, which will be great for the garden's bees, butterflies and other pollinator visitors.

These rare sunflowers grow in poor to average soil.

The next morning I checked on the bee, and it was still sleeping, although it was already after eight am. I became concerned because the yellow-faced bumble bees tend to be the first ones active in the morning, even when the temperatures are cool.

Two other yellow-faced bumble bees were very busy, visiting the Coastal Yellow Lupines, Lambs Ears blossoms, and Tidy Tips.

The bee stirred and moved around the sunflower several hours later, when the sun began to shine. And soon it too was flying around the garden.