{"id":147,"date":"2020-09-05T05:52:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-05T05:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enlightenment-demo.onedesigns.com\/blog\/?p=147"},"modified":"2020-10-08T08:53:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T08:53:44","slug":"the-long-quest-for-the-right-pollen-how-to-really-help-bees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enlightenment-demo.onedesigns.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/05\/the-long-quest-for-the-right-pollen-how-to-really-help-bees\/","title":{"rendered":"The long quest for the right pollen: how to really help bees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Planting bee-friendly plants seems to be the new fad in many cities around the globe. In the UK, amateur gardeners regularly try to attract<\/a> such insects, while in France, farmers have offered land to help beekeepers<\/a>. In other countries, such as Canada, cities adopt pollinators<\/a>. Even some companies undertake wildflower planting<\/a> efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not all plants can satisfy the nutritional requirements of bees and some may be more useful than others in balancing bee diets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Lavender attracts a variety of pollinating insects and is considered to be one of the most bee-friendly plants. It offers plenty of nectar (energy for pollinating insects) but its pollen is nutritionally imbalanced for bees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From early spring to autumn, pollinating insects, such as bees, use the rich food resources supplied by plants in the form of nectar and pollen. Nectar is the source of energy needed for all insect activity, while pollen is a source of building material<\/a> especially for larvae to achieve their final adult shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nurse bees ingest pollen, nectar and water to feed the larvae and the digested compounds are used to make jelly<\/a>. But its caloric value relies on the nectar and pollen used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Honeybee queen larvae floating in royal jelly. Their food is produced by nursing bees from digested pollen, nectar and water. Waugsberg \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The jelly is organic matter and composed of various organic substrates, such as specific sugars, lipids, proteins, vitamins, amino-acids and enzymes. All these organic substrates are constructed of atoms of specific chemical elements, like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, sodium, potassium, copper and zinc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research covering the proportions of various atoms<\/a> that make up living organisms and their food sources is called ecological stoichiometry or biological stoichiometry<\/a>. This approach was used for our investigation<\/a> of honeybees\u2019 nutritional needs and how they may be fulfilled only if pollen diversity and adequate species composition is available for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an important feature that differentiates organic substrates from atoms. Organic substrates are mutable (for example, they may be transformed into different substrates) and may be produced by living organisms utilising available atoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atoms are immutable \u2013 they cannot be transformed into different atoms and cannot be produced by living organisms. Therefore, mutable organic substrates are built of immutable elements. But how is this related to the production of good quality jelly for the growing bee larvae?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sugars \u2013 the source of energy for bees \u2013 are made up of only three elements: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Other organic substrates that are necessary for body-building and body maintenance are composed of other elements in addition to the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, such as nitrogen, phosphorous, sodium, potassium, copper and zinc. Atoms of these other elements must be incorporated into the bodies of growing bee larvae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pollen is the exclusive source of these elements for bees. Therefore, to produce good quality jelly, pollen must provide the bees with the required proportions of the atoms of body-building elements. And is every pollen, produced by various plant species, similar in this respect?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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