I am so proud of these two pictures of a queen or worker bee busy gathering pollen on my flowering oregano. At first I did not know what I had captured in these photos and only realized once I started to crop and post them. Can you guess what these “orange bumps” are? See below… A new bumblebee appeared on July 23rd in the morning.
I first took one look at these “orange” bumps on both sides of this bee and of course I was curious as to what they were. So, I went online and found out that bees have 3 sets of legs and the hind legs especially have combs and brushes to gather pollen. The pollen sticks to their hair and body together into one mass which are eventually stored in baskets. The bumblebee will moisten the pollen with some nectar to make it sticky and stay in the basket. Workers and queens have two baskets, one each on the outside surface of each hind leg. The pollen can be yellow, red, or in my case, orange. It all depends on the type of flowers they visit. In the top picture on the bumblebee’s right side the basket looks full but the one on the left side needs more pollen!
When you see a queen carrying pollen you will know that she has a nest site nearby. A basket can weigh as much as 0.01 g and contain as much as 1,000,000 pollen grains. Just think of all the work that has gone into gathering it. I took these pictures around 5:00 p.m. so that might be a good time to check in your garden to see if you have any queens or workers carrying pollen baskets – the wonders of Mother Nature!
Bees play such a big part in our gardens and the food we eat that I thought I would bring these photos to the Novice Gardener’s Party and share my delight in finally capturing a great picture of a bumblebee 🙂
A new bee I just saw Wednesday morning – I have lots of happy bumblebees gathering pollen – I think these are the workers 🙂 Todays bumblebee is enjoying my thyme flowers – how absolutely exciting! I did notice there were pale yellow baskets just starting on a couple of bumblebees hind legs.
That is so neat, Judi! Bees are so hard to shoot! You did a fantastic job with these photos! 😀
A compliment especially from you is very appreciated Patty. Yes, they are hard to shoot – I have been trying all summer! I think this queen/worker was so heavy carrying all that pollen that she moved slower LOL 🙂
BEAUTIFUL photos, Judi! Isn’t nature just amazing? And you captured it! 😀
Thanks Julianna – it was luck on my part that I captured a good shot of a bumblebee and one that had pollen baskets as well 🙂
Great photos, Judi! You captured the action and details so well! Really neat to read about their baskets and how they go about harvesting. I never get close enough to bees to notice any more than their buzzing. 🙂
Thanks Ngan – that’s what is fun about having a blog, I am always learning something new. I never heard about these baskets let alone saw any until the other day 🙂
Pingback: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter | Fiesta Friday #25 | The Novice Gardener
Thank you for doing your part in giving these bees a place to call home. I’ve never seen these baskets. Very interesting.
Thanks for you nice words – I have lots of honeybees as well as bumblebees in my herb garden right now as lots of plants are flowering. Those baskets are too cool, now I will be looking for more 🙂
Lovely and beautiful! And, necessary. 😀 )))
Thanks – I agree Fae and I can say I have lots of these “little guys” in my gardens 🙂
What great pix! Every time I catch a bee on a flower I run and get my camera…but my pix are nothing like yours! Great post. Thanks for sharing with FF!
Thanks so much – I have been trying all summer and have managed to get a few good pictures but these by far are the best 🙂
LOVE. I just loved this… your photos are amazing! Holy smokes..I mean, really amazing!! That is so very cool…I had no idea about the little baskets…but then again, I’ve never gotten close enough to notice orange spots on them! <3
Amazing photographs! How interesting about those little baskets! It must take the bees so long to collect that much pollen. I forget that so much amazing nature can be observed just in the garden or backyard. 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
Thanks so much – I was thrilled with the pictures. I learned something new a couple years ago about the pollen sacs. I can’t even imagine how long it takes them to get pollen sacs so big – they are busy as bees 🙂