What’s That Noise? Got Bees in Your Tree?
Do you hear buzzing when you’re near a tree? If so, you’ve probably got bees in your tree. However, it’s probably being pollinated by honey bees. When bees pollinate a tree, it is actually much louder than if they were living in the tree. The bees pollinate by flapping their wings very fast without flying to extract pollen from the anthers of the flower. When the bees are living in a tree, it’s not nearly as loud. This is because the bees in your tree simply land and move into the tree void or land on the exposed colony and get to work.
Do you have bees in your tree?
Pollination is the visiting of bees to flowers to collect pollen or nectar. Nectar gathering is referred to as “pollination” as well because in so doing the bees at least accidentally move pollen from one flower to another, accomplishing pollination for the plants.
Sometimes, when a tree or bush is heavily in bloom, many bees can be seen buzzing from flower to flower. that people think there’s a colony or hive of bees living there, or that it’s a swarm of “angry” bees. In actual fact bees that are pollinating are extremely unlikely to sting.
Bees visit flowers, as mentioned, to gather pollen and nectar. These are the only two foods bees consume. Pollen is their protein source, while nectar is their carbohydrate/sugar. Pollen/protein is heavily consumed for egg laying and growth of young bees, and nectar/sugar is essentially their fuel for flight.
