Surprising foraging method for my bees to collect nectar from blue Salvia

[Yucca Patrol]

The flowers of the blue Salvia are much too deep for any bee to reach the nectar from the front like a humming bird or butterfly might. However, the bumble bees solve this problem by piercing a hole in the bottom of the flower to reach nectar.

This morning I saw one honey bee moving from flower to flower, and wondered what it was doing since I believed it was physically impossible for her to get anything from these flowers. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that she was taking nectar through the pierced holes that the bumble bees leave behind!

I was so proud of my innovative little girl, but do realize that the summer dearth is about here and they've got to be creative with diverse nectar sources until fall.

[Honeypeach]

Mother Nature's just plain Not Stupid!

[c10250]

My bees have no problem with Salvia.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwi-...FCeW96TW8/edit

[Colleen O.]

I read somewhere that honeybees will do that.

Which type of salvia? The bees don't seem to have any problem getting nectar from my May Night salvia.

This spring I noticed a smaller or feral honeybee was able to shimmy into my Little Leaf Culinary Sage while a bigger bee tried and couldn't. The little bee kept harvesting the nectar, the bigger one gave up and moved on. It made me think that regressed bees have some advantages as far as opening up forage.

[Walliebee]

I have seen this on Salvia guaranitica (Anise-scented sage, Hummingbird sage). I'll guess the op is referring to this species as well.