Ann wrote:
Scott Hildenbrand expounded:

They are out gathering pollen. Pollen is not the food source of bees.
It's used in the making of honey, which is their food source.

No, pollen is most definitely a source of food, lipids, vitamins,
sterols, minerals, micronutrients and most importantly protein, some
within the worker bees' bodies in the form of vitellogenin and some
of which is stored as beebread. Honey comes from nectar gathered and
processed in the workers' honey stomaches and is also used as food,
mainly carbohydrates they burn over the winter to keep themselves and
the all-important queen warm until spring. There's more involved, but
books have been written on bee nutrition, I'm not going to bore you
all with the rest of it G


Not bored at all, actually..

So they can indeed survive on their own munching on pollen and wondering
around aimlessly?

Knew they did eat pollen but I'd always thought that honey was their
main food source and not just for winter stock.