April 18, 2005
Bees are gathering pollen
Waverly and I watched the bees flying in and out of their hive yesterday, and a lot of the ones flying in were carrying pollen on their legs!! It made me very happy, because pollen is food for bees and their brood, and, after a northern Vermont winter, these bees are hungry!! I think they are getting the pollen from trees, but I am not sure how or where. You can see that one some bees the pollen looks red and some it looks yellow. So they must have more than one source for it.
I don't see any pollen on the bee in the photo below, but I like seeing the bee in mid flight. Coming in for a landing at the hive, actually.
That picture of the bee landing is spectacular!
The people who designed the Concorde must have used bees as their model.
Posted by: Mike, pgg's dad at April 19, 2005 05:46 AMI was sorry to hear you lost your first hive to mites - we bought a drone frame last year and will try it as part of our organic mite control methods this year.... Our bees were gathering pollen from the earliest clover and from the maple trees when they first started bringing pollen back this year. (Here in NJ, maples are one of the first trees to flower):) -Shannon
Posted by: shannon at April 19, 2005 11:32 AMI thought bees ate nectar and made honey from nectar, and that the pollen was just a happy coincidence... Do you know for sure?
Posted by: Paul at April 22, 2005 02:44 PMPollen is the principal source of protein for bees. It is especially important for bee brood.
Posted by: Maryellen at April 25, 2005 09:41 AM