There is a lot written about how honey bees store pollen, but not always in very great depth, often just simply stating that bees pack pollen above and sometimes to the side of the brood, much of it simply repeating what has already been repeated. Having observed many colonies of honey bees for a long time, both free-living and managed, I have discovered it isn't quite as simple as that, as we may not understand what bees are trying to do. For that reason, what I write below is based on what I have seen, with a little conjecture, but taking a few variations into account.

Pollen is collected when the forage is good and stored for times when there is no income. This page doesn't cover the very complex behaviour of how or why pollen is collected, but where the colony puts it once collected. I assume that bees may behave differently, depending on the climate, local forage and other things that may be more subtle than commonly thought. Perhaps the different sub-species of honey bees might have evolved to store pollen in slightly different ways. I don't know, I am only guessing, but it seems reasonable, especially as it's generally accepted that our native bee Amm is known to store pollen underneath brood, where other sub-species are less likely to.

In trying to understand the pollen storage behaviour of honey bees we must realise that in a natural nest in a tree cavity, the only restrictions are the shape and size of the cavity, unlike managed colonies, where the queen excluder, or crown board if there are no supers, restricts the queen to the brood box. Most tree cavities are much taller than they are wide, with the nest arranged so that food, both liquid and pollen, is usually above and beside the brood, though this depends on the time of year and the shape of the cavity. I find that bees will readily move nectar, but are reluctant to move honey and pollen once they are in cells.

When there is more income than is needed, the queen usually lays eggs in the empty comb below and beside existing brood. The vacated cells at the top of the brood area are filled with nectar and pollen as the brood emerges, so forcing the brood nest downwards and increasing the stores. Both food and brood areas expand or contract, so the brood nest constantly moves up and down, depending on whether there is food coming in, or the store is used to allow them to survive times of dearth and the winter. This works in a similar way in a managed colony when a queen excluder isn't used, but the bees may modify it, depending on when extra boxes are added and where.

Pollen is placed in recently vacated cells, though reasonably evenly distributed between the nectar, which, of course, is converted into honey. You will notice that bees never completely fill the cells with pollen, there is always a gap. I believe that pollen that isn't needed immediately is converted into bee bread, then the cell is filled with honey and sealed to preserve it for future use. This ensures that pollen is available throughout the winter as the colony consumes the stores.

Because of the restrictions in most managed colonies, the bees are unable to do what I have described above, so they react to what is given them, without recognising the restrictions. That may be why the common version may be unreliable, as we are seeing a false situation. By observing what bees do, we can help them to survive better and I give examples. In a natural nest, the drone comb is usually on the periphery of the nest, so the winter cluster is mainly on worker comb, which is probably why we see in managed colonies that bees rarely put pollen in drone cells. In a heavy nectar flow, bees usually fill vacated brood cells with nectar and pollen. Inspecting a colony in the afternoon in such conditions often reveals there are few cells for the queen to lay in. If you look early next morning, you will probably find that most of the nectar has been moved into the supers, yet the pollen is still there. This is probably because bees don't expect empty cells to be above them and they are simply doing what bees have been doing for millions of years, which is placing nectar and pollen where brood has emerged. If a super of worker comb is placed immediately above a queen excluder, you will probably find that the bees will pack pollen in an arch in the middle combs. This is probably instinctive, as they are preparing for winter.

In writing the above, I hope I have shown that what we see in a managed colony may not be what happens naturally. Bees are simply doing what they should be doing, which is to provide a store of honey, with preserved pollen distributed throughout.

Roger Patterson.

Page created 25/12/2022