Posts Tagged: pollen
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)
About that Pollen...
Why is that in a honey bee colony, workers can carry pollen but not the queen? Well, scientists from Michigan State University and Wayne State University have discovered the answer. They've isolated the gene that's responsible for leg and wing...
Honey bee packing pollen on an almond tree at UC Davis--on the grounds of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility-- several years ago. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Now that's a load of pollen! Honey bee inside a pomegranate blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Seeing Red: Holiday Red
Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as "red pollen." Like people, pollen comes in many colors and all are beautiful. All. The floral source determines the color of the pollen. Just as nectar is a carbohydrate source, pollen is a protein source....
Honey bee with red pollen (from neighboring rock purslane) sipping nectar from lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee, packing red pollen, returning to a rock purslane blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pollen: Precious Gold
The California Gold Rush (1848-1855) has nothing on honey bees. Sometimes foraging honey bees are covered with their own kind of gold--pollen--or protein for their colonies. We saw this honey bee dusted with gold from head to thorax to abdomen as she...
Honey bee is covered with pollen from a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee is dusted with pollen from the blanket flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Lift off? The bee struggles to take off. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)