Posts Tagged: pollen
Why She's Packing Pollen That Way
If you've ever seen honey bees foraging on primrose, you may have seen something unusual. What's with the pollen hanging below their hind legs as they buzz from primrose to primrose? There's a reason for that. Distinguished emeritus professor Robbin...
A honey bee prepares to visit another primose. Note the stringy mass of pollen hanging from her hind legs. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee rapidly covering the distance to the primrose. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Almost in! Honey bee partially enters a primrose blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging inside a primrose blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Loving the Lupine
It's a given: Honey bees love lupine. We watched them buzzing around a flower patch of blue (lupine) and gold (California poppies) today along Hopkins Road, University of California, Davis, west of the central campus. Those are Aggie colors: blue and...
A honey bee heads for lupine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee with a huge pollen load. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Saddlebags? No, a heavy load of pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
How Tall Is It?
We have this tall plant in our back yard. How tall is it? Tall enough to give weather forecasts. (It's never caught “short” by a sudden storm.) Tall enough to see over the neighbor's fence to find a missing ball. Tall enough to be "the...
Honey bee packing a load of blue pollen heading for the tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Young honey bee seeking another blossom on the tower of jewels. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Watching the Girls Go By
Pull up a chair and engage in a little "girl-watching." That is, honey bees heading home to their colony. Many beekeepers, especially beginning beekeepers, like to watch their worker bees--they call them "my girls"--come home. They're loaded with...
Honey bees making a "bee line" for their home. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Note the load of yellow pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Queen bee and her retinue. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Why Honey Bees Forage in California Poppies
When you see honey bees foraging on the California poppy, the state flower, they're not there for the nectar. They're there for the pollen. "California poppies provide only pollen--no nectar," native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus...
Two honey bees foraging on a California poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee with a pollen load. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)