I've never seen it so closely before. Walking down from the front gate, I noticed a honey bee working one of the echinaceas. She was very entense. She would grab one of the pistils(?) and hug it intently and then move on, leaving behind a dot of yellow that was very visible against the green, orange, and red of the pistils. Looking closer, I saw that on the bee's hind-legs, it had like cargo pockets stuffed with this yellow stuff (pollen?) And where ever it stopped on the echinacea it left a little yellow dot. Then I noticed that the green-orange-red pistils that the bee hadn't visited, had like a little drop, like dew, on their tip. At least five minutes passed while I was lost in contemplation. Good day:-)
Bees
Jul 09, 2007
4 Replies
on 09/07/2007, Billy Rose supposed :
It's a "wonderful world".
Billy Rose expounded:
Those little 'pollen baskets' on the legs of bees are called corbicula. They don't just stuff pollen in 'em, they also collect the making of propolis in there, too. One of these days I'm going to put a pollen collector on one of our hives. A guy on Beesource posted a picture of his pollen harvest - very cool!
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At least five minutes passed while I was lost in
I could watch them for hours. Right about now they're mostly flying back to their hive, if I sit just right out there I can see them glistening in the setting sun. Breathtaking!
Thru the eyes of a child.......you made it for a bit.
You had a good day indeed, Billy. Haiku.
Charlie
Well, it is nice to read something good about bees. I'm very concerned about all those empty hives all across the world.
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