Pollen

Pollen is the bees source of protein. The bees collect the pollen and carry it back to the hive on their hind legs. I spend many minutes a day watching the bees fly in and out of the hive and watching in which direction they go. I noticed that the pollen they come back with is a variety of colors, as in the picture. I wondered where each pollen was coming from.
I watched the bees carefully on the blackberries- the pollen was a light gray. Sure enough, bees were coming back to the hive with light gray pollen.
I also noted that a lot of bees were heading out of my yard in a certain direction. So I went out the back gate and onto the road and looked to see where they were going. I found two flowering trees with lots of bees, but couldn't get close enough to see the color of the pollen. The bees on the lavender didn't seem to be gathering any pollen.
The colors my bees were bringing back beside the gray blackberry were yellows, from pale yellow to deep orange, red and white.
I know the brood is doing well because they use the pollen to feed the larvae.