As to the above song - "Shine on little bee girl......."
I have this Camellia shrub outside my office window and right now it is in full bloom. The bees just discovered it today!
Pollen on Camellia's was something I never have thought of (probably because they don't have a scent) but the bees know.
Stopping my work for awhile, I put my camera on a tripod and went outside to watch their activity. I saw them remove the pollen and place it on their back legs. When they had a sufficient amount, they would fly away and come back clean & ready to keep working. How do they know when they have gathered enough pollen or too much to fly? What do they use the pollen for?
Actually they store the pollen to use when it's too cold or there are no flowers pollinating. Stored pollen is mixed with mouth secretions to make brood food/bee bread which is essential for new little bees!
Pollen is not readily available when the bees start to rear their brood early in the year. They rely on stored pollen. Nurse bees consume bee bread as a stimulus to produce royal jelly for very young bees.
The bee in the above photo was taking a little break to "re-distribute" his heavy load. Now I know why they call busy people "worker bees"!
"What a kid I got,
I told him about the birds and the bee
and he told me about the butcher and my wife."
--Rodney Dangerfield
