Friday, January 14, 2011

Spring is Finally Here!


All winter long, you've been waiting to go outside and enjoy the sunshine, right? Well, guess what? The honeybees have been waiting for Spring, too! Honeybees need flowers for pollen and nectar. The forager bees leave the hive to collect the dusty pollen (made by flowers so that they can produce seeds).  This pollen has hooks and spikes that cause it to cling to the bee's hairy body so that it can be carried to another flower. 
After she finds a flower with tasty pollen, the foraging worker bee rolls it around and creates a ball of pollen on her back legs, called a "pollen basket".  With a heavy load of brightly colored pollen, she flies back the hive and passes it off to other worker bees inside the hive.  They store the delicious pollen in the honeycombs so brood (baby bees) and adult bees can eat it later!

"Bee in the Know":  During a trip out of the hive, a bee will visit between 50 and 100 flowers.

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