Nectar provides bees with carbohydrates while pollen contains plant sperm – both are integral parts of their diets, with worker bees stuffing both into specialized stomachs before returning back to the hive.
Flowers give bees a treat in return for pollination services: nectar. Bees particularly enjoy feeding on certain flowering plants such as lilacs (‘Lavender Lady,’ Miss Kim and Angel White); Sedum Autumn Joy and snapdragons – these species attract bees!
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Nectar
Nectar, or flower nectar, is a deliciously sweet fluid produced in flowers that contains sugar, water, amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals – providing bees with their energy source during foraging sessions and turning it into honey to fuel their colony’s expansion and help get through winter. Honeybees use nectar as food while worker bees use it foraging for nectar while honey bees convert it to nectar into honey to fuel hive growth and sustain themselves during harsher seasons.
While foraging for nectar from flowering plants, bees also gather protein-rich pollen as part of their diets; it forms the food source for bee larvae. Honeybees possess special structures called pollen baskets located on their hind legs to facilitate easier pollen collection trips.
Bees feed off of various sources, including overripe fruit and the sweet secretions from insects such as aphids whose sweet secretions they collect to produce honeydew. Some bees even consume meat as a source of vital nutrients not readily available from natural food sources.
Pollen
Bees require an extremely specialized diet consisting of nectar for energy and pollen as protein to support their needs in terms of maintenance, reproduction and other hive-related activities. This diet must provide enough sustenance for them to function optimally within their hives and beyond.
Bees search for flowers with pollen using an organ in their hind legs known as a pollen basket (cor-BICK-i-ula). This curved surface contains hairs that pick up pollen grains from flowers before mixing some nectar from its own source into them to bind together into larger grains of pollen.
Pollen provides an abundance of vital nutrients, such as proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and bio-elements. Pollen is an excellent source of water-soluble vitamins such as Vitamin E, Pro-Vitamin A & B6 along with Folic acid and amino acids such as Tryptophan phenylalanine Methionine Leucine Lysine Valine Isoleucine). Furthermore it also contains essential fatty acids & trace minerals – all essential elements for human survival!
Floral oil
Flowers provided to bees as food are an abundant source of both proteins and carbohydrates, playing an integral part in honey production as well as providing energy for their hive activities.
Worker bees use their long proboscisses to collect nectar from flowering plants and bring it back to their hives, where they use heat and pressure to convert it to honey, providing their primary source of carbs during winter.
Floral oils are extracted from various flowers and contain aromatic essences that have powerful therapeutic benefits, making them useful in fragrances, cosmetics and cleaners. Woolzies offers various floral essential oils including lavender, rose and jasmine essential oils. Inhaling or diffusing them are effective ways of enjoying their benefits; topically applying can treat various ailments; as well as adding them to a bath to promote relaxation and induce positive emotions.
Deceptive flowers
Plants have developed various deceptive strategies such as food deception, flower mimicry, shelter imitation and pseudo-antagonism in order to increase their chances of pollination. Unfortunately, however, such techniques often come at the cost of their pollinators – one study revealed that sexually deceptive orchids reduced the number of male bee flies attracted to them.
Ceropegia gerrardii from eastern South Africa serves as an example of deceptive pollination: its scent mimics that of struggling and dying insects it attracts; additionally, the plant secretes liquid similar to haemolymph of injured bees – both features have been demonstrated to confuse pollinators such as Annemarie Heiduk of Bayreuth Germany who observed how fly pollination was disrupted by this mixture of signals.
A poricidal anther keeps pollen at bay by only providing access to bees through small openings, but instead uses buzz pollination where bees grab hold of flowers and vibrate their wings to transfer vibrations into an anthers, which then releases pollen as a response.
