80 degrees in September

[beetiger]

Bees with Goldenrod Pollen, September 2009 These girls are heavily laden with bright yellow goldenrod pollen to bring into the hive. Perhaps they are making goldenrod honey too, but I haven't peeked this week.

Comments

[magnifelyn.livejournal.com]

Go, little bees, go!

[terrana.livejournal.com]

We can but hope!

Something I have always wondered, which perhaps you as a bee-keeper can tell me: do bees collect pollen deliberately for their own use, or is it just a side-effect of their visits to flowers that happens to benefit the plants?

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

They collect it very deliberately; it's a food source for them, basically their protein source. The moving it from flower to flower benefits the plants. Since honeybees only visit one kind of flower per visit, they are very effective pollinators!

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

Somewhat related...how does bee pollen as a supplement work? Do people take it off the bees or out of the hive?

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Bee pollen is collected by putting a mesh screen of the right size at the entrance of the hive, big enough for them to squeeze inside but small enough that it scrapes the pollen from the bees' legs on the way into the hive and traps the pellets in a collecting drawer. I don't do this, or know too many amateur beekeepers who do.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

That's a great picture!

I'm hoping to take a little video through my observation window today, and will post it if so.

Have you seen the Hive Cams at
http://www.hivecam.com/

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Considering it was taken with a phone camera, I'm pretty happy with it. I visited a beeyard on Sunday that had a top bar hive with an observation window. Very, very cool stuff. Looking forward to seeing the video!

[kakiphony.livejournal.com]

I feel so bad. I killed a bee on Sunday. It was in the laundry mat and I tried and tried to gut her to transfer her body onto a colorful anti-abortion brochure from the window so I could take outside. But she was so determined to be on the glass. I finally smashed her. I still feel guilty.