The other day I was rushing by a local magnolia tree and was summoned to a halt when I noticed some interesting behavior that I’d never seen before. This busy little bee effectively stopped me in my tracks and peaked my curiosity. I am so thankful he did because it gave me the chance to research this mysterious nature and appreciate some of the magic that’s going on all around us between bees and flowers. Learn the story and enjoy the video below, it may intrigue you to stop and smell the flowers a little more often.
This pollen ladened honey bee was plucking the straight {male} stamens from the neck of the flower
leaving behind the cone~like curly cluster of carpel {female} stigmas,
and building himself a fragrant little wallow pool.
But why? I wondered.
According to my friend who is a beekeeper and botanical goddess, this is a very efficient way for them to collect as much pollen as possible. If you go back up and look at the tightly packed stamens you can see that it would be hard for the bees to interact with the stamens as they stand.
But piled up in the petal, they can jump into that fragrant stack, wriggle around and quickly get coated in pollen.
But what do they do with all of this pollen?
They actually use it to nourish baby bees, the life cycle of the baby bee is fascinating. To bring it back to their hives, the bees wet the dry pollen with their mouths and then pack it onto the small hairs on their legs to make “pollen baskets”. When the baskets are “full” they go back and scrape off the pollen where it is turned into “bee bread”, a recipe of pollen, saliva and enzymes. The bees work hard all summer and fall to collect as much pollen as possible to be ready for the birthing season in the Spring.
This “bee bread” is consumed by the Nurse Bees in the hives, which stimulates her production of royal jelly that she uses to feed the larva. Three days after the queen bee lays her eggs, the nurse bees feed all of the larva royal jelly for 3 days, after that the drones and workers bees are moved onto honey and pollen, but any potential queen larva continue to receive the nutritionally rich royal jelly. It takes 18 days for the workers and drones to fully develop at which time they eat through their wax coccoon and join the hive.
And the cycle continues.
Click below to enjoy a quick video capturing the action.
Isn’t nature amazing?
Have you seen any interesting pollination in your world you’d like to share?
WOw! This is absolutely fascinating. I’m so glad you noticed and then dug into the info. I wouldn’t be someone to just read up about bees, but presented like this it’s amazing. Thank you!!!
While I was waiting for my watering can to fill, I noticed a line of ants, like a highway. Every now and then an ant would come from the opposite direction. The ants would bump heads and continue on. No matter how many ants, the ant going to where the others were coming from would tap them before continuing. At first I thought it was some kind of adorable bumbling, but then it was clear they were communicating. Just because we don’t hear or understand other living things, it doesn’t mean they don’t talk, perhaps at a sophisticated level. We are so full of our own importance.
things like your video and photos make it clear that the world is a complex place, a place we need to better respect.
ToF: Thank you. You’re so right, there is so much going on around us in the natural world. Your ant story is interesting, I think they follow a scent track back to the nest and maybe bumping their colleague confirms that they are on the right track? The communications of the animal world are so interesting. Thanks for sharing! ~ebh
So interesting Emily! Im going to buy bee pollen today. Add it to yoghurt and Berries in the morning, drizzle honey atop! A very Bee fitting breakfast 🙂
xo
Bee fitting indeed, Sally! I just looked up the beneficial properties of bee pollen: “A complete protein, rich in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids and anti-oxidants, it is considered an immune system builder that will also enhance vitality.”, I think I’ll go find some too!! Merci!