Plants with Purpose - Follow That Bee!
I REVEL IN THE CONCEIT that any bee spotted in or around Bankfoot belongs to me. My head knows this is untrue, as, while I am not aware of any other beekeepers in the village, I’m told a swarm regularly emanates from some disused building behind the paper shop and has to be captured. Indeed, it’s twice landed in my garden.
Nevertheless, if they are around my lane, they have my logo on them, and I want to know what they are up to. When they are crowding round the well- watered pots in the nursery, it’s obvious; they are after a drink. Moist compost is their favourite water source. If their heads are buried in a flower, it’s pretty self-explanatory too. But if I only see them returning home, how can I tell where they’ve been?
Chasing them is pointless. They are much faster then me and there is the little matter of bee-lines to negotiate. Through thickets, over walls and down steep slopes is not for me, and anyway, you just can’t keep your eye on them for long. The clue to where they’ve been is in the pollen. |
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Pollen is essential for bees. It is their only source of protein - the food on which larvae, or brood, depend. It is needed to make royal jelly. At this time of year, the brood nest is expanding rapidly and many foragers will be collecting pollen all day. They comb it into pockets on their back knees using both front sets of legs, and when these “baskets of the corbicula” are full, they go home to unload. The pollen, which has been pressed into hard pellets, is clearly visible on the returning bees and its identity can be guessed at from the colour, combined with knowledge of what plants are flowering locally.
Once in the hive, the knee-caps are scraped out, so to speak, and the pollen packed even tighter into the cells surrounding the brood nest. How is it packed? Well, if you were a bee, you’d use the hardest part of your body. They head-bang it into submission, and go off to get some more. The nurse bees use the pollen stores to feed the brood as required.
If you want to track down the activities of some bees, here are some bee plants likely to be used in the coming months, and the colour of their pollen:
Sycamore - Greenish
Bluebell - Grey to Pale Green
Broom - Yellow
Horse Chestnut - Pink
Apples and Pears - Pale Green
Dandelion - Orange
Wild Cherry - White
Hawthorn and raspberr - Dirty white
Oliseed Rape - Yellow (would you believe!)
Clover - Brown
Bell Heather - Grey
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