Washington (CNN) Temperatures are dropping, the leaves are changing colors and the White House bees are getting ready to retreat into their winter cluster.

That means Charlie Brandts, the White House beekeeper won't need to stop by his old workplace quite so often. The 35,000 bees that call the White House garden home take care of themselves during the winter.

"They're in a protected site," Brandts says. "Not that the Secret Service is just protecting them, but they're protected from the elements."

Brandts worked on the White House carpentry staff since the mid-80s, but retired from full-time work in 2012. In 2009, then-White House chef, Sam Kass, asked him to set up a hive near First Lady Michelle Obama's garden. Brandts had established one at his home a few years before and brought some of his bees to the White House.

They're the first first bees.

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