Haulin' pollen means more bees!

 

As the late summer goldenrod is flourishing, the honeybees are busy stocking up on their winter supplies, but first...  they need more pollen.

It's a bit simplistic to put it this way, but bear with me-- nectar is for honey (adult bee food) and pollen is for brood (baby bee food). 

So when you see bees flitting about without pollen on their back legs and sticking their tongues deep into flowers, that's nectar being gathered.

When you see pollen being packed onto their legs and big masses of it entering a hive, that's a sign that they have brood to feed...  and this time of year, that's for a quick bump in population as the hive prepares for winter.

It's also way cooler to see pollen getting packed into a hive than nectar, just because you can't see nectar and pollen is so colorful (and varies so wildly in color!)