Viewing post #1657954 by Intheswamp

carolem said:@Intheswamp interesting reading; thank you Ed. You said, at times you can see honey bees with their pollen sacs on their hind legs bulging with coloured pollen, and indeed I do. I wasn't aware that the bees actually have a "pollen sac" that they stuff the pollen into. I see the pollen of course and somehow just thought it stuck on there! And that the other bees help to empty the sacs is indeed interesting too.

The sacs are usually referred to as "baskets" but I've always called them sacs...just so if you talk to another beekeeper they'll understand what you're talking about, though they'll problem understand "sacs", too. They are indeed fascinating creatures. As for stinging, they are defensive creatures. If they don't have anything to defend then they are not aggressive...closer to the hive they tend to be a little more aggressive. Some honey bees simply tend to be a bit more defensive than other hives...this is usually due to the dna of the queen (most all of the workers and drones are her offspring after a while). We use the scientific terms "calm bees" and "mean bees" between their disposition. And, some days those calm bees can be mean as rip and the mean bees as calm as can be. When it comes to Africanized bees all bets are off...they are very aggressive...hyper defensive...and deadly. Honey bees sting once and die, as do bumbles (bumbles will do everything they can to keep from stinging). Wasps and hornets can sting multiple times and live to sting again another day. A couple of last tidbits of honeybee info...a worker bee only lives about six weeks in the summertime, literally working herself to death and dropping from the air. *All* of the honey bees you see working flowers, etc., are female bees...the only purpose of the males (drones) is to fertilize a new queen (she only has to be fertilized once and can produce fertilized eggs for years)...and once the drone does its deed, it dies.