Pollen feed-frenzy

I can’t stress enough the value of having an experienced mentor when you take on beekeeping. I had never considered putting pollen out for our girls until prompted by my #Hivesforheroes mentor, Scott Steele.

At first I put the pollen he gave me out just to be polite, so when he asked if I had tried it I could answer in the affirmative. It took my girls a day to locate the bucket so when I first looked there were no takers.

Later that day my husband told me the bucket had hundreds of bees in it. Sure enough, when I checked there were legions of bees lined up collecting it. I had put a cup out and it was almost gone.

Bees use pollen to feed their larvae. It’s usually abundant as long as flowers are blooming. But much like the sugar water we feed them to get them through times of nectar draught, the bees aren’t always going to be interested in offered pollen when there’s plenty available in the wild.

So, happy bees are now on their third cup of pollen in two days. Big thanks again to my mentor and Hives for Heroes for the marching orders.