The bees' diet consists of three main components. Nectar, honeydew and pollen. The first two foods are a source of energy for insects because they contain mainly water and sugars. However, in addition to carbohydrates, they also need protein for proper development. Its primary source in the bees' diet is pollen.
Pollen is uneven to pollen
From a botanical point of view, pollen is the male reproductive cells which, after being transferred to the ovary and pollinated, will become the beginning of the next generation produced by the plant. When flowering, plants usually produce large amounts of pollen, which is eagerly collected by insects. It is worth adding, however, that the nutritional value of pollen from different plants varies. The literature distinguishes three classes of pollen quality.
- First-class pollen with the highest nutritional value (willow, pear, poppy, rapeseed limb)
- Second-class pollen with medium nutritional value (poplar, beech, maple, dandelion, sunflower)
- Third-class pollen with the lowest nutritional value (alder, birch, hazel, pine, spruce)
Top-class pollen is easily digestible by insects and its amino acid composition is tailored to their needs. The lower the pollen category, the less willing the bees will be to collect it, but in periods of poor harvest they will also use pollen of lower quality.
The pollen yield of bee honey also varies. There are those where the collection of this food is symbolic, but some – such as selected linden species – can produce up to 100 kilograms of pollen from one hectare of trees.
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How do bees collect pollen?
Bees have developed a very interesting mechanism for collecting pollen. According to the literature, after reaching a flower, the bee sits on the petals of the crown and shakes the flower so that the pollen of the flowering plant covers its body. Then, using the brushes on its hind legs, it collects pollen grains, and then, using the secretions of its jaw gland, nectar and honey, it creates lumps which it places in the pollen baskets on its hind legs. The lump formed in this way is called a pollen clump.
Bee pollen is not bee bread
However, before the collected pollen is included in the bees' menu, it must be further processed. The pollen grains themselves are unstable, and raw pollen grains are less digestible. Therefore, bees have developed another fantastic mechanism – using acid fermentation, they firstly preserve the collected material and, secondly, improve its digestibility. The collected stalks are placed in the cells of the comb and then covered with a layer of honey. In these conditions, a process occurs analogous to that in the case of pickled cucumbers known from our cuisine. The product resulting from such processing is called bee bread.
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Why do bees need pollen?
As mentioned earlier, bees use pollen as a source of protein. Protein is needed by the family primarily to produce subsequent generations of insects (the body of which is largely composed of protein). The intensively brooding queen bee also needs it (protein is needed to produce countless eggs.
Protein food is given to insects in the form of the so-called royal jelly, which is a mixture of crushed bee bread and honey, with the addition of enzymes produced by bees. It is used to feed drone larvae and workers, but only until the third day of life. Later, only the mother is fed with royal jelly, which receives this food not only during the embryonic period, but throughout her life. It is the difference in the food consumed that is the main factor determining the differentiation between the worker and the queen. From a genetic point of view, both stages are identical.
And soon we will write about the importance of bee pollen in the human economy.
