Pollen Sacs. What in the heck? Last summer as various types of bees began visiting the flowers, some of the captures showed a few of the bees with these yellow things on their legs – both honey bees and bumblebees had them. Not being a guru on bees, the research began and it turns out they are pollen sacs (I’m probably the only person who didn’t know this!)
I had photographed bees before, but had never seen a bee with a pollen sac. So it was fascinating to watch the bees buzz in and have a look at their legs. Some had big sacs, some had what looked like just the beginning of a sac, and some had none at all, but were completely covered in pollen. Turns out male bees do not actively collect pollen as this is left to the queen and worker bumblebees. And not all bees have sacs as they collect the pollen on the hairy bodies.
The posted images show bumblebees with pollen sacs from different angles (the first 4), and the 5th image is of a honey bee with a sac (honey bees have crevices on the backs of their knees for the pollen sac), and the last image is of a bumble bee covered in pollen. Google “bee pollen sac” if interested for lots of good info, and here are a couple of links to get started: www.accentnatural.com/more-on-pollination-pollen-sac/ and www.pbs.org/newshour/science/bees-vibrate-unlock-secret-stash-pollen
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