The yellow glob you see on the bee's hind legs is pollen from the flowers and is most interesting. This picture shows what a bee looks like when returning to the hive with a full load.
This picture clearly shows the pollen deposits as well as cells containing larva. The worker bees take pollen and nectar to the developing larva. They deposit the 'meal' on top of the larva and it gets absorbed. The youngest fully developed bees perform these chores. In a few days they will join the other bees in work outside the hive. The naturalists speak of 'division of labor' and it is really apparent here. Also present is capped honey.
Larva beneath the word 'THESE' are more developed than the larva to the left. It would appear that this is a very good queen as the 'larva circle' is quite compact.
The above caption tells the story. This hive appears to be quite active so it will be only a few days before the bees will be covering this frame too.
If I am correct in what I think I am looking at here...you can see a few cells where the fully developed bee will soon emerge. They are those cells that have a dark body in them.
For the finale I wish I had a nice bottle of honey.
Immediately outside the hive some bees do a 'wiggle-waggle' dance. This dance tells the other bees the direction and distance to a nectar source. A Nobel Prize was awarded to Karl Ritter von Frisch who deciphered the wiggle-waggle dance.
Karl Ritter von Frisch (Note: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as "Knight," not a first or middle name) (November 20, 1886 – June 12, 1982) was an Austrian ethologist and zoologist. His research revolutionized our understanding of the sensory perception of fish and insects. His most distinguished discovery was that honeybees communicate the location of a food source to their hive mates by performing a complex dance, known as the "waggle dance." Frisch received the Nobel Prize in 1973.
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