Nectar supplies a colony's carbohydrate fuel, but pollen is its only source of protein, fat, vitamins and minerals — the raw material nurse bees convert into brood food and into their own fat-body reserves. When pollen income drops, even a hive brimming with honey can't rear more brood than its protein stores allow. This apiary places eight real UK forage plants around the hive, each blooming in its own window and delivering a different protein percentage, so you can watch the colony's bee-bread reserve — and the brood it can support — track the pollen calendar rather than the nectar flow.
A single UK colony needs roughly 20–25kg of pollen a year to rear its brood, and gaps in continuous local bloom — like the "June gap" between spring blossom and high summer flowers — are one of the most common causes of stalled brood rearing, even when honey stores look plentiful.
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.
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.
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.
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.