Harold Sexton, age 13, of Stittville, .. , for his question:
How does a bee father and unload pollen?
Bees hang around in the fall after most other insects have gone. Hence we notice them morn and Andy gets enough bee questions to fill a hive with honey. It is too bad a bee is so small because we miss seeing so much of her fascinating life. If we were small as pixies we would, no doubt, spend hours watching a bee go about her interesting duties.
As we all know by now, every little worker bee is a princess. Like any proper princess she has her countless duties. She learns to do each one properly and gracefully. One of these duties is gathering pollen and storing it in the proper place.
When she leaves the hive a bee princess is actually off to market. And, of course, the sensible little lady takes a shopping basket. In fact, she takes two shopping baskets. She has one fixed to ouch of her back lags. It is called a pollen basket. Let's watch her fill a pollen basket with pollen, tote it home and unload it.
The little princess makes a beeline for the store, which is a flower. She pushes into the cantor of the blossom, pokes in her tongue and ladles up the sweet nectar. Meantime, the little lady's furry body has brushed against the golden pollen.
She is covered. with golden dust and this will never do. A princess must be neat at all times. So she gets busy. Fixed to her six slender lags is an assortment of tiny combs end brushes. The combs era rows of stiff bristles the brushes tufts of soft hair. ‑First she uses the brushes on her middle legs to remove pollen from her body and other lags. Next she uses combs to remove the pollen from these brushes.
The pollen is removed from the combs by a pollen packer. This is a pair of pincers in the point of the back lag. Each back log is wider than the center and. front legs. Along two sides of each rather flat back 1eg is a deep, stiff fringe. The leg and these two fringes form a pollen basket. As the pollen is scraped off , it falls in a wadded lump into the pollen basket.
Miss Bee cleans herself and tots her pollen baskets, one on each hind leg, is a neat, systematic operation. With baskets loaded she flies straight back to the hive. She knows just where these groceries go on the pantry shelf. The pantry, of course, is a honey comb for storing pollen.
The bee stands on a waxen cell and uses her front legs to lift the pollen from the baskets. She places it into a cell, bends over and tamps it down firmly with her head. The marketing job is done. Then the little lady finds herself another chore. Meantime, the pollen ripens into bee broad, which is the special formula fed to baby bees.