Home▸Entomology & Insect Behaviour▸Pollen Sources and Protein Nutrition for Honey Bees

🌾 Pollen Sources and Protein Nutrition for Honey Bees

An interactive 3D apiary where the colony's protein (bee-bread) reserve rises and falls with which UK forage plants are in bloom, revealing why pollen dearths — not nectar shortages — stall brood rearing.

Entomology & Insect Behaviour3DModerate60 FPS

Eight real UK forage plants bloom and fade around a cutaway hive through the season, each delivering its own protein percentage, while the colony's bee-bread reserve and brood-rearing capacity respond directly to what pollen is actually available.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Foragers only visit patches currently in bloom, so the colony's protein income tracks the pollen calendar — including the classic early-summer "June gap" — rather than how much nectar is flowing. The hive's hex-cell rows show stores filling with bee bread and brood only being reared up to what the protein reserve can support.

🎮 How to Use

Slide through the season to open and close each species' bloom window, add or remove foragers, push brood-nest demand higher than the reserve can sustain, and toggle a supplemental pollen patty to see the beekeeper's real fix for a dearth.

💡 Did You Know?

A UK colony needs roughly 20–25kg of pollen a year to rear its brood, and pollen protein content varies enormously by species — from around 40% in willow down to barely 12% in nectar-rich but protein-poor Himalayan balsam.

⚙ Under the hood

An interactive 3D apiary where eight real UK forage plants bloom and fade through the season around a cutaway hive; the colony's bee-bread protein reserve and its hex-cell brood-rearing capacity respond live to which pollen sources are actually in flower, not to nectar flow.

pollen-nutritionbee-proteincolony-nutritionpollen-dearthbrood-rearinguk-beekeeping

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install