W. G. Henson, age 14, of Gastonia, North Carolina, for his question:

How can a bee carry pollen?

The honeybee carries built in tool kits to cope with her chores and her personal grooming. The items are spikes and spurs and brushes on various sections of her three pairs of legs. When she visits a blossom to gather sweet, syrupy nectar, grains of golden pollen stick to her legs and her big, round eyes, to her antenna and her furry body. On each front leg she has an eye brush and a spur to comb her antenna, plus two fringes of hairs to brush the front of her body. Each middle leg has a hairy fringe used to brush pollen from her thorax and front legs. On each back leg she has hairs to scrape the golden dust from her furry tummy and back, plus spines to clean the other back leg.

The neat little lady gathers her pollen by using the right tool to clean it from each part of her body. She stuffs the golden dust into her pollen baskets, one on each back leg. One section of each back leg is wide and flattish and slightly hollow on the inside. Its edges are fringed with stiff hairs that slope in toward the center. They form the caged sides of a tiny market basket. The pollen grains tend to stick together and when each basket is stuffed full, the busy bee returns to the hive and delivers the groceries for making beebread, honey and royal jelly.