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Honeybee with pollen baskets A pollen trap Fresh bee pollen Frozen bee pollen, a human food supplement Bee bread: the bee pollen stored in the combs Chunks of bee bread. Bee pollen, also known as bee bread and ambrosia, [1] is a ball or pellet of field-gathered flower pollen packed by worker honeybees, and used as the primary food source for the hive.
The term pollen source is often used in the context of beekeeping and refers to flowering plants as a source of pollen for bees or other insects. Bees collect pollen as a protein source to raise their brood. For the plant, the pollinizer, this can be an important mechanism for sexual reproduction, as the pollinator distributes its
The walls of the Egyptian sun temple of Nyuserre Ini from the 5th Dynasty, dated earlier than 2422 BCE, depict workers blowing smoke into hives as they remove honeycombs. [8] Inscriptions detailing honey production are found on the tomb of Pabasa from the 26th Dynasty ( c. 650 BCE ), and describe honey stored in jars and cylindrical hives.
Worker bees gather pollen in the pollen baskets on their back legs and carry it back to the hive where it is used as food for the developing brood. Pollen carried on their bodies may be transferred to another flower, where a small portion can rub off on the pistil, resulting in cross pollination.
The brood of Western honey bees develops within a bee hive. In man-made, removable frame hives, such as Langstroth hives, each frame which is mainly occupied by brood is called a brood frame. Brood frames usually have some pollen and nectar or honey in the upper corners of the frame. The rest of the brood frame cells may be empty or occupied by ...
Bees in four tribes of the family Apidae, subfamily Apinae have corbiculae: the honey bees, bumblebees, stingless bees, and orchid bees. [14] [15] The corbicula is a polished cavity surrounded by a fringe of hairs, into which the bee collects the pollen; most other bees possess a structure called the scopa, which is similar in function, but is a dense mass of branched hairs into which pollen ...
The pollen trap makes access to the hive harder for the foraging bees. In the process of climbing through the pollen trap wires some pollen is loosened from the bee's pollen basket and falls into a collection container. Varying recommendations describe leaving the pollen trap on for a few days or for more extended periods.
Pollen provides the protein and trace minerals that are mostly fed to the brood in order to replace bees lost in the normal course of their life cycle and colony activity. As a rule of thumb, the foraging area around a beehive extends for two miles (3.2 km), although bees have been observed foraging twice and three times this distance from the ...