Bees and Pollination –
Bees are a keystone species. This means that the role they play in creation affects every other form of life. Bees are pollinators.
Pollination is what happens when a bee flies from flower to flower, drinking nectar and collecting pollen. As they land on bright flower petals, they stick their long tongue out and into the stigma of the flower and drink nectar inside. Then they gather pollen from the flower and put it in their pollen ‘basket’. A pollen basket is a small cavity in the bee’s back legs that is lined with small hairs.
This bee has a small load of reddish pollen on its back legs that it harvested in this patch of bluebonnets. Bees use the pollen to make honey. They mix the stored nectar with the pollen, and it changes colors and becomes sticky and sweet. They use the honey to feed their young…when humans or bears are not stealing it.
If all the bees died, a lot of other things would too because many plants would not pollinate. Then they couldn’t reproduce or make fruit or seeds. All life is connected in a beautiful system. Say thanks next time you see a bee.
