As a forager bee brushes against a flower's anthers, static electricity and dense body hairs (setae) pick up loose pollen grains. Using her legs, she combs the grains from her fur, moistens them with a little regurgitated nectar, and packs them onto the flattened, hair-fringed corbicula ("pollen basket") on each hind tibia — building up a compact pellet trip by trip.
A single foraging trip can involve visits to hundreds of flowers, and a full pair of pollen pellets can weigh close to half of what the bee weighs herself — yet she can still fly it home. Bee-collected pollen is roughly 15–30% protein by dry weight, plus carbohydrates, lipids, and trace minerals, which is why it's marketed as a nutritional supplement — though people with pollen allergies should use it cautiously.
Watch a forager bee brush pollen from a flower's anthers, groom it into her hind-leg corbiculae, and pack it into a growing pellet — then read out the nutrient breakdown of what she's collected.
The mechanical cycle of pollen foraging: contact with anthers, leg-grooming to comb fur, and packing grains into the pollen basket. The nutrient panel reflects lab-average protein, carbohydrate, lipid, moisture and mineral ranges for bee-collected pollen, tinted by flower source.
Choose a flower source, adjust foraging speed and target pellet size, and toggle the leg-grooming animation. Watch the pellets on both hind legs grow after each visit until she reaches her target and flies home.
Bee-collected pollen is typically 15–30% protein by dry weight along with carbohydrates, lipids and micronutrients, which is why it's sold as a nutritional supplement — though it should be used cautiously by anyone with pollen allergies.