A honey bee – Apis mellifera – collects pollen for its hive just west of Plains. "Pollen gathering is most important for feeding the larvae," said Lauren Kerzicnik, an extension specialist of entomology at Montana State University in Bozeman. Kerzicnik said that this time of year the bees are searching for fall-blooming plants as a food supply in order to prepare for the winter. "As sources are limited in spring and fall, they will be doing some important searching," added Kerzicnik, who also noted that there are natural bee hives around, and they are perennial hives, surviving the winter. "There are several layers stacked together and they can get quite large. The hives shrink substantially to a few workers surrounding a queen," she said.