Homecoming

Who knows how many bee pictures I'll be able to post this year, so carpe diem. The bee inspector will return in a month or so; until then I'll be poking about myself, looking for signs of trouble. They have filled a box of ten frames with new wax and put eggs and growing larvare into seven of those frames, along with plenty of pollen and nectar, so they are doing very well. I have looked very hard for signs of disease and found nothing definitive, so still hoping for the best

This is an action shot. A somewhat uncontrolled landing taking place on the right; full pollen baskets make manoeuvring difficult. It's quite possible she has a honey-crop full of nectar weighing her down as well. The previous arrival has only just vacated the runway and is disappearing into the darkness of the hive, the pollen looking almost like navigation lights

Six bees are standing firmly on the landing board, facing the entrance, heads down, abdomens raised. On two of them, extreme right and left, you can see a gap between the last and penultimate segments of the abdomen. They are exposing a pheremone-producing gland that lies below the exoskeleton, then using their wings to propel the chemical signal away from the entrance. This provides a homing beacon for the returning foragers with their pollen loads. Also, I had just shaken a few stray bees on to the landing board, and that kind of disruption often provokes this 'gathering them in' response

The exposed abdominal gland is called the Nasonov gland. I've written about him before, but not with the eponymous organ quite so clearly displayed