6.17 Collection Of Pollen

Question 1

How many lbs of pollen can a colony consume per year?

Answer 1

50 - 100lbs

Question 2

What are the 5 steps of pollen autogrooming?

Answer 2

1. The forager regurgitates nectar onto her tongue and strokes her tongue with her forelegs and this makes the brushes on her foreleg’s sticky
2. She sweeps antennae clean of pollen before cleaning her head and the anterior region of her thorax
3. She uses the brushes on her middle leg to clean her forelegs and uses them to reach other patches of her thorax. She will further moisten these to make it sticky.
4. She draws her middle legs through the combs on her hind legs. This leaves sticky pollen on the rows of comb hairs on the side of her leg.
5. She uses her leg work to stuff this into her corbicula

Question 3

What does a pollen forager do upon returning to the hive?

Answer 3

She will go and find an empty cell and place her abdoemn in it. She will rub her legs to rake off the pollen and compress it down

Question 4

How does pollen collection differ from water and nectar?

Answer 4

There are no recievers of pollen at the hive entrance as foragers do the packing themselves

Question 5

What are the uses of pollen for in the hive?

Answer 5

o Consumed by nurse bees to produce brood food and royal jelly
o Fed to worker larvae
o Consumed by workers in autumn t build fat bodies

Question 6

How do workers determine the colonies pollen requirement?

Answer 6

Trophallactic exchange between nurse bees and others can determine it as they consume pollen to feed brood. When colony has greater supply, then they will have greater cocnentrations in their glandular secretions.

Question 7

What determines the decision to collect pollen?

Answer 7

The number of larvae, amount of stored pollen, its availability in the enviormnet

Question 8

What does pollen contain?

Answer 8

6-28% protein and between 1-20% lipids

Question 9

How is the pollen processed upon being stored?

Answer 9

Secretions are added to stored pollen from the hypopharyngeal glands and bacteria from the digestive system which casues the pollen to uncergo lactic acid fermentation. This makes it nutriionally valuable and ensures it keeps.

Question 10

What is pollen called after it has gone through lactic acid fermentation?

Answer 10

Bee bread