Spruce's honey bees

this is a great thread we've always had a soft spot for bee's (especially bumble bee's) and there used to always be loads buzzin' around the garden as we have quite a flowery garden...the two large Cotoneaster's in particular would be absolutely smothered in them in the past but the last few year (particularly last year) the bee's around here were terribly small, tiny even! its sad to think they're not thriving anymore i'd noticed they loved my Calendula's so last year i grew more than usual and Sunflowers also, this year i purchased some poppy seed (which are just starting to sprout along with the Calendula) as as Joolz says i read they're partial to them too. i hope the poor little fellas do better this year.

 

Please can you clarify something Spruce? I think that the bee sucks liquid nectar from the flower though a long tube that goes into a stomach. It is then ( is this true?) transferred at the hive, into the stomach of one of the indoor bees for administering to store or the young.
OK, I think I can cope with that when I have bread and honey, but, the bags on the bees legs contain pollen which is a different substance I think? Where does that go and what does it do please?
Jenny

 

Bees begin the process of making honey by collecting nectar - a sugary juice that is in the head of flowers. The worker bee is usually around 20 days old when it begins the job of collecting nectar and she covers hundreds of plants in a short space of time.
The worker bee collects nectar in the centre of the flower, during this process the pollen on the bee’s body rubs off on the flower and this helps pollination tremendously. In fact, bees are the most prolific pollinators in nature. The worker bee works so hard at collecting nectar during the summer months that it unfortunately dies after about 5 to 6 weeks from pure exhaustion.
The honey bee collects the nectar with their long tongues (known as glossa). They store the sugary nectar in their honey stomach, and it then mixes with enzymes from the hypopharyngeal gland within the bee’s body. Once full they return to the hive and transfer the sugary substance, by mouth, to another bee whose job it is to store the product. This bee is between 6 to 18 days old and their job is to process honey in the hive.
This bee then transfers the substance into the hexagonal wax comb cells and the bees continue to fill the comb cells until they are full. Bees keep the temperature inside the hive relatively constant between 32.5°C and 35°C. Maintaining this temperature helps the evaporation of water inside the honey substance.
The bees also use enzymes with the sugary nectar and this helps the process by breaking complex sugars down into glucose and fructose. Once the bees are happy that the water has evaporated sufficiently, they seal the comb cell by capping it with wax. The water is usually evaporated until the nectar is about 17% to 18% water.
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An average honey will contain approximately 17% water, 31% fructose, 38% glucose, 1% sucrose, 9% other sugars and about 4% organic acids and other substances.

 

Thank you Spruce, I enjoyed reading that.
And the bags of pollen?

 

So demanding you bee fans

The pollen is like the " beef with our roast dinner" its a super food for bees and us !
Jens why do you think I look so young
They either use it straight away to feed them selves and the larvae that are developing they also store it away in the cells, saving it for later to eat.

Pollen, in the form of bee bread, is the honey bee's main source of protein and it also provides fats/lipids, minerals, and vitamins. The protein that pollen provides is vital to brood production and the development of young bees. Pollen is the most nutritionally variable food source that honey bees use and typically is composed of the following: water (7-16 %); crude protein (6-30 %); ether extract (1-14 %); carbohydrates including reducing sugars (19-41 %), non-reducing sugars (0-9 %), starch (0-11 %); lipids (5 %); ash (1-6 %); and unknown (22-36 %). Pollen from different floral sources has different quantities of each component: all pollens are NOT equally nutritious to the bees.
The protein pollen provides is essential for hive growth, but the amount of crude protein available in pollen is highly variable among different pollens, ranging from 6-30% of the total dry weight of the pollen. Protein is composed of amino acids, 10 of which have been identified as essential to honey bees. These include threonine, valine, methionine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, histidine, lysine, arginine, and tryptophan. The quantity and type of amino acids present in pollen varies by the floral source from which the pollen was collected.
Spruce

 

Spruce,
I wanna pot of your pollen spread please!! You can keep your SAD lamp,
Jenny

 

Jens

I dont have a SAD lamp

I had hayfever before I had the bees now I dont

Spruce

 

I'm getting there, slowly but surely; fairly sure I have things which aren't on your top 3 lists which will benefit them throughout the year though (including clover in my lawn )

 

Is that because of their stings Spruce?
Are you saving money, typing in a tiny font size????
Jenny

 

Yet again Mum knows best

clover in your lawn if you let it flower

Spruce

 

Jens its beecause of the local pollen in the honey , the stings are for rheumatism

 

thank you for enlightening me Spruce,
and for typing in the normal font size
Jenny

 

Beekeeping must have cured your hayfever then Spruce! I remember my mum had bad hayfever until she got a nice sized garden and grew loads of different plants. Until then she only had a yard at the back of the house. Maybe close interaction with pollen over time makes you immune to it or something or is it because you eat the honey? My mum still got a bit of hayfever but it was nowhere near as bad as when she only had a yard.

 

*Update* 14th April 2013

Both hives have survived the winter really cheered me up as past couple of weeks with that very cold Easterly wind I was beginning to doubt....

I went and checked this morning at 9.30 am (just outside) still to cold to open them up properly ie take the roof and crown board off, hefted to check the weight seem ok but I will still keep a close check on the food they have in the hive's if not I will have to feed them , I was not expecting much activity but both hives coming and going laden with pollen really quite busy , it must be gorse as its in full flower here plus maybe ? wild primrose that grows in all the hedgerows' and the hazel catkins are nearly ready to break fully.

They should do ok if it ever warms up , hawthorn blackthorn yet to flower and all the willows in the water meadow so lots on its way just need sunshine and warmth , well I think we all do dont we !

Spruce

 

Great news Spruce ....everything crossed for the temperatures to rise for the Bees aswell as us...thanks for the update....