Those who have been reading this [...]]]> I wasn’t paying much attention to Pandora last night until I heard that old Bob Dylan tune, “Tangled up in Blue.” Oddly, I didn’t think of the ’70s or the disparately sad lyrics. No, not me . . . I thought about blue pollen. How weird is that?

Those who have been reading this blog for awhile know I’m obsessed with blue pollen. It just seems like such a gratuitous gesture on the part of mother nature. After all, the bees are attracted to the color of the flowers, the sweetness of the nectar, and the scent oozing from the glands. The color of the pollen shouldn’t much matter. And, as we all know, bees will collect it regardless of the color–white, green, yellow, pink, brown, and gray all work for them. So why did nature go to all that trouble? I haven’t a clue, but I love it.

The song reminded me that it’s time to think about planting some of my blue-pollen producers. The Siberian squill, a bulb flower, is already several inches tall and, since all the trees around it fell in the storm, it should actually get some sun this year. My other blue-pollen flowers still have to be planted.

If you’re ready for the blues as well, here are a few suggestions for your garden:

• Siberian squill, Scilla siberica, is a bulbous perennial that blooms in early spring.

• Tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii, is an herbaceous biennial that’s good for you southerners.

• Borage, Borago officinalis, is an annual herb that freely re-seeds itself.

• Fireweed or great willow-herb, Epilobium angustifolium, is an herbaceous perennial that grows in disturbed areas and produces water-white honey.

• Phacelia, Phacelia tanacetifolia, is an annual herb, especially attractive to native bees.

• Bird’s Eyes, Gilia tricolor, is an annual California native that will grow in most North American zones.

So there you go: six great ways to get your bees tangled up in blue.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Bee on blue. Flickr photo by Chris Willis.

I’ve tried to think this through, [...]]]> After I wrote about floral fidelity and the purity of pollen baskets, I received this awesome photo by Chelsea at thehoneybeat.com. Look carefully and you will see the worker in the center of the photo has pollen baskets of two distinctly different colors. So how did this happen?

I’ve tried to think this through, but it’s tough. On one hand, the pollen baskets look to be pure, just like normal. In other words, the yellow and orange pollens are not mixed together, but kept separate.

But on the other hand, how did she do this? Surely, she wouldn’t fill one basket completely and then the other. If so, she’d be flying lopsided. Pollen baskets are always filled at the same rate so the bee stays balanced.

Was she foraging on two types of pollen at once and separating each color as she went? This seems equally unlikely.

Chelsea asked if I had any ideas but, in truth, the more I think about it, the confused-er I get.

Rusty

How did this happen? Photo by Chelsea

So when the new day dawns, Sue and Marianne, Betsy and Josephine grab their flight plans and wing out the front door. Sue is visiting dandelions, Marianne and Betsy [...]]]> Flower fidelity makes honey bees special. While many pollinators flit from one plant species to another, honey bees doggedly pursue flowers of a certain species.

So when the new day dawns, Sue and Marianne, Betsy and Josephine grab their flight plans and wing out the front door. Sue is visiting dandelions, Marianne and Betsy are working the apples, and Josephine has cherries in mind. They each collect just one species of pollen. This is great for the plants because the pollen that lands on the stigma is the type needed for fertilization. How this benefits the honey bee is less clear.

Nevertheless, an entire foraging trip will be spent on that single flower type. In fact, individual bees are likely to keep collecting the same pollen for many days. Only when the source dries up does the forager switch to something else.

Floral fidelity is the reason you seldom see honey bees on small plantings. If you have just a little of this and a little of that in your garden, the flowers are more likely to be visited by native pollinators than by honey bees. A honey bee forager wants to see at least two basket-loads of pollen–probably more–before she starts to collect.

Much research has gone into flower fidelity. Examinations of pollen loads show that only about six percent of the pollen is inconsistent with the rest of the load. And some of the six percent may have been introduced accidentally. For example, pollen could have been deposited on a flower by the wind–or perhaps by a different pollinator–where it remained until it was inadvertently picked up by a honey bee.

You don’t need a laboratory analysis of pollen pellets to know flower fidelity exists. Instead, just take a look. Pellets have distinct colors–sundry shades of white, yellow, orange, blue, and gray. Each pellet is made from one color, not mixed up like M&Ms.

Even more interesting, back at the hive the pellets are packed into cells according to type. Although there are some exceptions, the cells are as distinctly colored as mosaic tiles. We see blue ones and red ones, yellow ones and white ones. Whereas nectar is transferred from bee to bee before it is stored, pollen-carrying bees must store their own pellets. Could it be that each forager stores her pollen in the same cell after each trip? Does she know “her” locker from another? I’d like to know more.

The photos of brilliantly-colored pellets were graciously provided by Phillip Cairns at MudSongs.org.

Rusty

An oversized load. Photo by Phillip Cairns

Each pollen pellet has its own distinct color. Photo by Phillip Cairns

Sisters in blue. Photo by Phillip Cairns

Yesterday I wrote that bees need a continuous supply of flowering plants such that something is always in bloom. I also mentioned that different types of bees prefer different types of flowers. What I didn’t discuss was the importance of pollen variety in the bee diet.

I think it [...]]]>

Bumble bee on clover

Yesterday I wrote that bees need a continuous supply of flowering plants such that something is always in bloom. I also mentioned that different types of bees prefer different types of flowers. What I didn’t discuss was the importance of pollen variety in the bee diet.

I think it is easier to understand bee nutrition when you compare it to our own. So, just now, I went to the pantry and reached for a can. It happens to be Trader Joe’s 100% pineapple juice in an 8.45 fluid ounce (250 ml) single-serve container. Good enough.

The nutrition facts printed on the side of the can tell me that one serving (the entire can) provides 2% of the daily vitamin A needs of a person who eats a 2,000 calorie-per-day diet. (Those are actually kilocalories, but that is a separate subject and a different blog.)

So, assuming I’m such a person, to get enough vitamin A by drinking just pineapple juice, I would have to drink 50 cans (422.5 ounces) or 3.3 gallons of the stuff. I like pineapple juice, but there’s a limit.

The 3.3 gallons also provides 7250 calories which is 3.63 times more than I need (assuming 2000 per day.) But it doesn’t supply any fat—which is necessary for good health—and doesn’t supply many of the other vitamins, minerals, and trace elements which keep us going from day to day. I certainly would not be very healthy living on pineapple juice alone.

You can think of a pollen grain as a “can” of food. It contains many of the amino acids, lipids, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements a bee needs, but different types of pollen contain different types of “ingredients.” The label on a can of beans will look very different from the label on the juice, just as the “label” on a grain of maple pollen looks different from the one on a grain of aster pollen.

Research has shown that when bees are forced to consume pollen that is low in nutrients they respond by eating more of it. But just as in the example above, they reach a limit. They’re full. They’re stuffed. They simply cannot eat enough of the inferior pollen to satisfy all their nutritive requirements.

Bees lacking in nutritious food are more prone to disease, don’t live as long, and can’t maintain a strong hive. Brood production falls off and eventually a colony will die. So when planning the placement of your hives, remember that the admonition to “eat a variety of foods” applies to them as well as us.

Rusty

The term “pussy willow” refers [...]]]> A male pussy willow is one of the best trees for the bee yard because it will bloom especially early in the year. Beekeepers often plant them close to the apiary to help the bees through the pollen-scarce months of March and April when little else is in flower.

The term “pussy willow” refers to several species of willows that get furry gray catkins. In the states, the term usually refers to Salix discolor, a native to North America. In northern Europe it often refers to Salix caprea, although there are many others as well.

The catkins appear very early in the year before the leaves. The furry stage is actually the bud stage of the flower. Later, the fur disappears and is replaced by either male or female flowers, depending on which type of plant you have. Pussy willows are dioecious, meaning there are both male and female trees. Although only the male flowers produce pollen, both sexes produce nectar.

Pussy willows are hardy in USDA zones 4-8. In warm winters, the buds may appear as early as late February or early March. According to several sources, the nectar can be plentiful, but it may occur too early for honey bees to fly. However, many native bees—including mason, andrena, and bumble bees—are often seen happily sipping up the nectar.

The medium yellow pollen from the male trees is considered to be of average quality in terms of its nutritional contribution to honey bees, having a crude protein content between 20-25%. However, it is certainly better than nothing. If it is warm enough to fly, your honey bees will benefit from this early and plentiful source of nutrition.

Rusty

Pussy willow in bud stage. Flickr photo by Phil Sellens.

Pussy willow in flowering stage. Flickr photo by Smudge 9000.