Beekeeping

How bees carry pollen: the mechanism for collecting and creating nectar, what they do with it

How bees carry pollen: the mechanism for collecting and creating nectar, what they do with it
Anonim

Bee honey is obtained from flower nectar, which is collected by industrious insects during the flowering of honey plants. Further, the nectar enters the hives and, after special processing, becomes a valuable, tasty and he althy product. In addition to nectar, minke whales bring pollen to their hives. But how bees use and how they carry pollen to their nests, we will look into the details further.

Pollen gathering place

Pollen is necessary for the full life of the bee colony. Insects use small flower powder to feed and improve the nest.After entering the hive, the extracted substance is mixed with nectar and sealed in honeycombs. This is how minke whales prepare perga, or bee bread, which they will eat throughout the autumn and winter.

Collect flower powder in flowering fields, meadows and forests that scout bees find for their families. To make it easier for insects and to get high-quality nectar, beekeepers transport hives as close as possible to places with flowering honey plants. After flying around this field, the scouts have to fly around the district again in search of available honey plants.

Interesting! Each worker bee spends about 2 hours a day collecting pollen.

Plants

In addition to collecting nectar, insects pollinate plants by transferring a fine powder from one plant to another. The quality and variety of honey directly depend on the flowers, trees, herbs and shrubs from which the industrious minke whales collected valuable products.

Honey plants grow and bloom everywhere and, in most cases, need pollination by bees:

  • fruit and berry trees and shrubs;
  • ordinary shrubs and trees growing in forest and forest-steppe zones;
  • herbaceous, flowering plants in the form of clover, thyme, sweet clover, lungwort, cornflower, willow-herb and other cultivated and wild honey plants.

Important! In the process of collecting valuable products, bees can fly 3 km from their nest.

Bodies and collection process

The bee's body is covered with small thick villi, to which flower pollen sticks in the process of collecting nectar.Insects collect small grains of sand from their fur, process them with sweet nectar and make small crystal balls that are placed in a special organ in the form of a basket on their hind legs.

The process of collecting valuable products is as follows:

  • thanks to scouts, insects go to areas with fragrant and attractive plants for them;
  • pollen sticks to the villi on the body of minke whales;
  • next, the bees collect small dust particles from their body with their paws, form a small crystal and place it in a basket located on the shins of the hind legs.

After returning to the hive, the bees drop the ball into a special honeycomb cell for further processing.

Important! To make one crystal from flower pollen, each individual has to fly around a thousand honey plants.

The use of pollen in human life

The pollen collected from the flower after delivery to the hive is mixed with honey and sealed by bees in special cells. After the end of the fermentation process, bee bread is obtained from mixed products, which the insects feed on themselves and feed their offspring.

Bee products contain a huge amount of vitamins, beneficial acids, nutrients and biologically active substances. During the season, insects stock up on pollen in excess, so beekeepers safely use part of the valuable product for their own purposes. Due to its unique composition, pollen processed by bees is characterized by excellent healing properties and is used in folk and traditional medicine.
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