# Orange Stuff in Cells ?



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

It's called pollen. It comes in a rainbow of colors and is absolutely essential to bees. It will be stored all around the brood nest. They will haul it in fresh whenever it is available and store it for when it's not. If they run out all the open brood will die. They bring it in on their pollen baskets and then pop it out and put in in cells like this and then pack it in with their heads. It is sometimes called "bee bread" as it's actually pollen and nectar mixed into a kind of dough.


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## Swobee (May 18, 2007)

Aiesha- I have one hive in my back yard (much to my wife's dismay) and the rest in various fields all over. Our three year old grandson & I sit by the hive and watch the bees come and go- (she doesn't like that idea either). I was amazed at the variety of colors of pollen the bees returned with in their pollen baskets. Your bees are OK and that looks like normal pollen stores to me. Thanks for sharing the photos, keep 'em coming to share your bees' progress.


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## spunky (Nov 14, 2006)

*pollen*

Starting about a week ago about every fourth bee on all three of my hives started bringing in pollen, 2 weeks before it was every 20th bee or so. Orange and bright yellow.


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

You can look in any of my hives and see many different colors of pollen, white, yellow, orange, to bright red.


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## dcross (Jan 20, 2003)

http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z179/dcross_53042/?action=view&current=DavidGroup046.jpg


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## Aisha (May 2, 2007)

Michael Bush said:


> It's called pollen. It comes in a rainbow of colors and is absolutely essential to bees.


That's a relief. It looked like it might be a cloudy fungus or something, esp. with the nearby cells filled with clear liquid.

The bees have been bringing in lots of orange and yellow pollen. 

Thanks! One less thing to worry about.


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

*Royal Jelly.*

I do believe that the term , "royal jelly" is reserved for that very special formula that is fed only to the larvae of developing Queen cells. It comes from the the secretions of the HYPOPHARYLNGEAL and MANDIBULAR glands of the nurse bees.


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## naturebee (Dec 25, 2004)

Aisha,

You have wonderful observational skills and very inquisitive! These things are key to becoming a successful beekeeper, and I love to see this in new bees! 

Just how important observational skills are in beekeeping, is illustrated in the story of Faancois Huber, often referred to as ‘the father of modern bee science’. You would be surprised to know that the scientist and beekeeper Huber was blind. So how was he capable of writing his book ‘New Observations on the Natural History of Bees’ that was based on his written accounts from observations made between the years 1787 to 1791?

Even though Huber was blind, he was blessed to have the assistance of a servant by the name of Francis Burnens. Burnens was Hubers eyes and ears. Burnens, would observe the behavior of a colony of bees in an observation hive and describe to Huber what he was seeing. Huber said of Burnens, "I judged readily, from his remarks upon our readings and through the consequences which he knew how to draw, that he was comprehending them as well as I, and that he was born with the talents of an observer.”

Best Wishes, 

Joe Waggle ~ Derry, PA ‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' 
FeralBeeProject.com 
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/


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## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

Oldbee, I think you will find that all brood is fed royal jelly for the first 3 days. Then the workers are switched to bee bread. "mixture of pollen and honey".
That is why they can make an emergency queen from a worker larva that is less than 3 days old.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I guess I missed the "Royal Jelly" comment in the original post. No, it's not Royal Jelly. As explained by a later post, it's what is fed to newly hatched larvae and to queen larvae and in order to make it the bees require a lot of pollen.


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

iddee: OK !


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## Aisha (May 2, 2007)

naturebee said:


> Aisha,
> 
> You have wonderful observational skills and very inquisitive! These things are key to becoming a successful beekeeper, and I love to see this in new bees!


Thank you, Joe! That means a lot to me. I am learning so much from the elders here. I love science and nature and I hope to invent some new things. I am working on a new hive beetle trap right now. 

That's an amazing story about the blind beekeeper. I'll try to read his New Observations soon. I am reading some off Walt Wright's work right now. 

I see my bees grooming all the time now, and I understand what's happening thanks to your video.

Have a great weekend !


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## naturebee (Dec 25, 2004)

Aisha said:


> That's an amazing story about the blind beekeeper. I'll try to read his New Observations soon. I am reading some off Walt Wright's work right now.
> 
> Have a great weekend !



Michael Bush has 'New Observations on the Natural History Of Bees by François Huber' on his website:

http://bushfarms.com/huber.htm

Best Wishes,
Joe


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## Aisha (May 2, 2007)

Oldbee said:


> I do believe that the term , "royal jelly" is reserved for that very special formula that is fed only to the larvae of developing Queen cells. It comes from the the secretions of the HYPOPHARYLNGEAL and MANDIBULAR glands of the nurse bees.


I read that all the bee larvae eat royal jelly for the first 3 days. I assumed that the royal jelly was laid down in the bottom of the cell before the queen lays the egg, but maybe the nurse bees feed the tiny new larvae from their mouths. 

They get the good stuff for a while and then it's back to pollen sandwiches.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I assumed that the royal jelly was laid down in the bottom of the cell before the queen lays the egg, but maybe the nurse bees feed the tiny new larvae from their mouths.

The egg hatches first and then immediately they put a pool of royal jelly around it for it to eat. They keep it fed up until they cap it.


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