Last year I saw red, many oranges, yellows, greens, and white pollen pants, and propolis pants, but not this face spot.

What your are calling "pants", do you mean the hairs on the bees legs? (Most commonly referred to as pollen 'baskets') And if so, do the bees with the face spot all have empty baskets?

My guess is a plant, but have no idea which one. Jewel weed is know to leave white marks or stripes on bees backs just behind the head.

 

Pollen Spit Ball fight ? Those 2 lost

 

First of all thank you very much for the incoming summary. Whether through calls, emails, texts, or forum posts it usually takes a fair amount of effort to get that much detail.

Someone else can chime in here, But I’ve never seen this once. If it’s not something they are encountering physically (sticky pollen from specific flowers, paint, etc.) then my guess is going to be a fungal disorder.

I am basing this on absolutely nothing.

This is intriguing. I’ve looked at 1000s of bee faces in the last few days alone. Never saw this.

When I was a kid my brother tried to convince me you could catch a bumblebee in your hand without getting stung. “You can’t show them any light.” he would say as he snatched them out of the air.

Mercifully, he only let me get stung once before revealing that drone bumblebees (at least here) have a large yellow spot between their eyes.

 

I noticed a lot of my worker bees had spots on their heads during inspections last night, multiple hives. Not yellow, but chalky white (in North Carolina). Was curious what it was too....but hives were healthy so not worried, just curious. Figure it has to be some plant that's blooming now...

Interested to hear responses

 

keep in mind bees pack pollen into the cells with their heads.
they mix in a little nectar, some "enzymes" or spit if it is easier to remember.
It is called "bee bread" this is fermented and used in times of no bloom, like winter.
IMO these bees are likely the ones making the bee bread.
if while examining the frames cells are found 2/3 or so full of the same color stuff, then it is likely this explanation.

when I make bread I have flour on my face, the bees , pollen

GG

 

Hey Jen…welcome to Beesource and congrats on your first post! Judging by the amount of amazing detail you provided, you’ve been reading for a while and know the routine.

Your oasis sounds incredible and your colony is enjoying its bounties. My guess is, due to warmer than normal temps, your shaded, moist woodland areas have some orange jewel weed (impatiens capensis) flowering, albeit quite early.

Hummingbirds love this plant because its sugar content is 43% which is very high. Because of this, and it’s long flower shape, your eager bees can only just reach its nectar and their heads bump the orange dusted stamens, hence their beautiful head accessorizing. Just a thought.

Keep us posted if you find some on your property or if you think it’s something else? That’s one of the funnest parts of beekeeping; trying to identify the sources of the myriad pollen colors and the nectar being foraged.

 

There are some plants that are spring loaded and hit the bee in the face with pollen. Alfalfa is one of these.

 

Mine here in VA had that same look. I am told that the red pollen you see in their pollen baskets is the same orange pollen on their heads and it comes from Henbit/Lamium. Blooms in early spring.

 

If it is purple deadnettle then this is what you’ll see everywhere growing as a pretty weed. (First pic is henbit that flowers a little later.)

 

Never seen Hindu honeybees before. Someone drew the short straw with their reincarnation.

 

Here's a picture of one of my bees with something similar, pollen.

 

Some flowers entrap the bee and as they're backing out they drop a pollinia on the bee. Then when they visit the next flower it grabs the pollinia off of the bee to get fertilized. Jewelweed referenced above is one of these. Many orchids are pollinated this way.

 

Very cool intro post. I really enjoyed that. Definitely got hit with pollen one way or another. Nothing to worry about (thank goodness).

Brett