July 12

Aaaaahhh, Summer!  After this past winter, I am so thankful for the warmth of summer, for flip flops and tank tops! I'm especially thankful for the bees.  They have been going crazy this week in my garden, mainly in the squash and pumpkin patch. The shrubs in my backyard that they pollinated in May are loaded with berries to the point that the branches are so weighed down they are breaking off.  This has not occurred before, so I'm thinking it has something to do with the bees!  They have also discovered the Zinnia flowers that started blooming this week.  I keep checking the bee balm (Monarda) as it is now blooming, but alas, no honey bees yet.  We peeked in on the hives this week, all is well. Honey stores are building up.  The new queens in the splits should be laying by the 24th of July.  I'm looking forward to learning the extraction process.

Honeybee on Zinnia

Worker inspecting Zinnia.

Try another, this one isn't quite ready for you yet.

See the pollen on her hind legs?  This is commonly called a pollen basket, anatomical term is corbicula.  As the worker is visiting flowers she pauses here and there to "brush" pollen into the basket.  She moistens her front legs with her tongue (proboscis), then brushes the pollen grains that have collected on her head, forelegs and body to her hind legs where the basket is.  When full, she carries it back to the hive to be unloaded. So cool!  I've watched them bring in pollen, it varies in color (white, yellow, orange, tan) depending on the source they collect it from.

 

If you look closely, you can see this worker's tongue working to sip up some nectar. Her tongue is similar to a straw within a straw. The smaller tube, for taking in nectar and the larger for ingesting honey.