Thursday, February 23, 2012

White powder mystery explained

You may recall in an earlier blog, I wrote about white powder on my bees' back. I attributed it to pollen from the eucalyptus getting on the bee in an area where they couldn't reach to clean off. That may be correct, but now I also have a new explanation.
Searching on the web, I came across a discussion that talked about pollen from Jewelweed. I don't know if this grows around here. Then I saw my bees on the cascading rosemary flowers, and they had the powder on their backs. The flower has an arching stamen so when the bee goes in for the nectar, the anthers rub on her back.

Here is one of my girls getting her nectar with the stamen clearly visible.

Here is an interloper at the rosemary. You can see the pollen on her back.

No comments:

Post a Comment