Pondering Wandering Bees

I've been thinking about honeybees lately, specifically, I have been wondering two things about them. First, having seen hardly any honeybees for most of the summer, and suddenly finding multiples every day once the Japanese knotweed and now the goldenrod came into bloom, I wonder what and where the honeybees were eating during all those months. Whatever it is, they seem to have had to change what they are eating, and venture elsewhere to find it. The other thing I was thinking about is that of all of the insects in my backyard, the honeybees are the only ones that aren't wild animals. Those bees belong to someone, someone who tends to them, but has no idea where they go every day when they fly out to find nectar to make honey. So the other thing I wonder is, where do these bees live? No one on my street keeps bees, and I know they can travel a few miles, so there is a pretty wide area from which they could fly to my house. I'm just curious. Although it would be cool to buy some honey and know that it could have been made from nectar from my backyard.

I'm on a 3 day streak of finding new species of insects to be Backyard Bug of the Day:

I think it is a sphinx moth of some kind. I couldn't find it in my caterpillar book, but I think it might be an early-ish instar, and they don't usually have pictures of those in the book. The horn on its rump does hint at it being a sphinx moth caterpillar, though. I had thought that it would be good to see how it changes as it grows, but later I went looking for it again and it was gone, so I guess that's not going to happen. Sometimes when I find a caterpillar I can find the same caterpillar in the same general location (at least on the same plant) for a few days if not more, but other times they just disappear. It's not surprising for that to happen if they are active when I find them; it is more surprising if they are just sitting there, or eating a leaf. This one was resting on the center rib of a half-eaten leaf.

But speaking of caterpillars going away...

 The World's Laziest Caterpillar is gone! I was so disappointed not to find it today. Perhaps it has headed off somewhere to pupate. Alas, I will never know. It is somewhat notable that its roommate (the other caterpillar that was living in a silk tent on the same leaf) is also gone.

 The goldenrod remains popular with several orders of insects:

 Coleoptera (beetles)

Lepidoptera

 Hairstreak butterfly

 Ailanthus webworm moth and geometer caterpillar

 Another geometer caterpillar

 And another geometer caterpillar.

The Hymenoptera are represented up above by the honeybee, but there were plenty of other bees and wasps, and also Diptera (I think) which are flies. Goldenrod are very popular.

 Beetle

It turned its back on me.

 Stink bug

 Beetle

 Assassin bug nymph on purple cone flower. I don't think it's going to find much prey there; the purple cone flowers are not attracting many insects lately.

 White faced hornet