Billy Rose expounded:

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.
--
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!
http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z...idGroup046.jpg

At least five minutes passed while I was lost in
contemplation. Good day:-)

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!
--
Ann
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