Bee honey is obtained from flower nectar, which industrious insects collect during the flowering of honey plants. Next, the nectar enters the hives and, after special processing, becomes a valuable, tasty and healthy product. In addition to nectar, minke whales bring flower pollen to their hives. But how bees use and how they transfer pollen to their nests, we will look into the details further.
Pollen collection site
Pollen is necessary for the full life of a bee colony. Insects use fine flower powder for nutrition and improvement of the nest.After entering the hive, the extracted substance is mixed with nectar and sealed in honeycomb cells. This is how minke whales prepare bee bread, or bee bread, which they will eat throughout the fall and winter.
They collect flower powder in flowering fields, meadows and forests that scout bees find for their family. To make the task easier for insects and to obtain high-quality nectar, beekeepers transport hives as close as possible to places with flowering honey plants. After flying over this field, the scouts have to fly around the area 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 fine powder from one plant to another. The quality and variety of honey directly depend on the flowers, trees, herbs and shrubs from which hardworking minke whales collected valuable products.
Honey plants grow and bloom everywhere and, in most cases, require 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, fireweed and other cultivated and wild honey plants.
Important! In the process of collecting valuable products, bees can fly 3 km from their nest.
Organs and collection process
The bee's body is covered with small, dense villi, to which pollen sticks during the process of collecting nectar. Insects collect small grains of sand from their fur, treat them with sweet nectar and make small crystalline balls, which are placed in a special organ in the form of a basket on their hind legs.
The process of collecting valuable products occurs as follows:
- thanks to scouts, insects go to areas with fragrant and attractive plants;
- pollen sticks to the villi on the body of minke whales;
- Next, the bees use their paws to collect small dust particles from their bodies, form a small crystal and place it in a basket located on the shins of their 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 about a thousand honey plants.
The use of pollen in human life
After being delivered to the hive, pollen collected from a flower is mixed with honey and sealed by bees in special cells. After the fermentation process is completed, bee bread is obtained from the mixed products, which the insects feed on themselves and feed their offspring.
