Ever Seen a Honey Bee Foraging on a Daffodil? – Bug Squad

Ever seen a honey bee foraging on a daffodil?

Within the early spring, blooms are few and much between. Daffodils are usually not normally thought-about “bee vegetation.” But when nothing else is blooming, bees will head over to the daffodils.

On a Feb. sixth go to to the UC Davis Ecological Backyard on the Scholar Farm, we watched a lone honey bee–probably from the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Analysis Facility apiary on Bee Biology Highway–gathering pollen in a close-by mattress of daffodils.

The bee’s heavy load of daffodil pollen regarded like pure gold.

Norm Gary, UC Davis emeritus professor of entomology, writes in regards to the significance of pollen in his e book, Honey Bee Hobbyist: The Care and Maintaining of Bees: “The significance of pollen within the well being and vigor of the honey bee colony can’t be overstated. Bees want a balanced weight loss plan. Honey satisfies the bees’ carbohydrate necessities, whereas the entire different nutrients–minerals, proteins, nutritional vitamins, and fatty substances–are derived from pollen. Nurse bees devour massive quantities of pollen, changing it into  nutritious secretions which can be fed to growing larvae. Throughout a complete yr, a typical bee colony gathers and consumes round 77 kilos (35 g) of pollen.”

Daffodils belong to the genus Narcissus, named for a good-looking hunter, who, in Greek mythology, fell in love along with his personal reflection (the phrase “narcissism” means “extreme self-love”).

There was a whole lot of love that day within the daffodil mattress.