After getting directions from the Scout Bee, the Collector Bee flies to the area where the flowers bloom, all full of pollen or dripping with nectar. The Collector Bee then starts gathering pollen from the flowers. During this trip the Collector Bee will visit only the same type of flowers until she is done. She carries pollen from flower to flower of the same species and, thus, helps pollinate them with their own seed. During her next trip she may visit flowers from a completely different species, but she will again keep to the same type of flowers. As the bee works, she gathers pollen grains, mixing the pollen with a little honey from her mouth, and packs the pollen into sacks, or corbiculae, that are located on her legs. It is in this way that pollen granules are formed. When the bee returns to the hive, the pollen granules are mixed with other secretions and are stored and sealed in a cell in the hive. When the cell is opened at a later date, the cell yields tasty "bee bread", which the bees, especially the young babies, eat for food.
How do we get the pollen that we sell to you? Well, the beekeepers put a device called the "pollen trap" over the entrance of the hive. It consists of a series of wires mesh screens that the bees crawl through to get into the hive. The pollen trap does not hurt the bees at all, but it does knock about half of the granules out of the sacks, or corbiculae, from the bees legs, where they fall into a tray that the beekeeper empties periodically. Collecting bee pollen is actually beneficial to the hive, because bees over-collect pollen, which results in increased population. This leads to swarming--a phenomenon that happens when new queen eggs are laid and the population of the hive splits in two. One half of the bees stay with the new queen larvae and the other half swarm with the old queen to a new location. In the old hive the new queens hatch, fight to the death, and the survivor becomes the new queen to mate and begin ruling.