Natural History Wanderings

The New York Times Science section has an article explaining at least in part why bees buzz. The buzzing of bees shakes pollen out of plants which provides food for the bees and helps pollinate plants. The pollen, which is rich in protein, is found in tubes deep inside the plants.

Bees get the pollen by grabbing the tubes with their jaws and vibrating hundreds of times a second to loosen the pollen. The pollen tube bounces up and down, builds up energy and blasts out in a cloud coating the bee with pollen. The Bees gather the pollen to eat and bring back to the larvae in hives. However, the process is somewhat messy. Some of the pollen remains on the bees body, which gets left off on another flower that the bee visits resulting in the pollination or fertilization of that plant. Read more at:  Unraveling the Pollinating Secrets of a Bee’s Buzz – NYTimes.com.