What's your favorite insect? For me, it has to be bumble bees. Large, cute and fuzzy when compared to honey bees, they don't produce much honey but are important pollinators. And they don't sting me either, like their much more aggressive cousin the yellow jacket - who make me swell up like a basketball when stung. Here's one of the cuties that doesn't seem to mind having it's picture taken. Note the red tongue protruding forward in the following photo.
Like other bees, they thrive on the nectar of flowers, rich in sugar, that provides the energy they need to make their rounds all day, even in cold weather. Add some of their saliva to the pollen they collect and we have honey. Note how the pollen collects on one of their legs while their tongue laps up the nectar and that's how we get pollination between flowers and the makings of honey.
Why don't we get stung a lot bumble bees? In part, it's because only females have stingers, and not males. They also form in small groups, typically 50 or less, and stay close to home. Because they have long thin tongues, they can reach nectar in long tubular flowers that other bees can't and don't have to compete with other bees feeding off the same flowers. You can see how long their tongue is in the follow photo.
Only the queen bee survives the winter, with enough honey stashed away to support her until the spring when she starts a new colony.
So much fun to watch.