Bees And the Corn Dust

This morning I was using a bag of cracked corn to help catch some loose chickens, and during the process slung the partial bag atop the trap cage. A few hours later I came back to retrieve the bag, and to my surprise, there were honey bees in it. What the heck were they doing in there? I sat down to watch and observe.

Bees in the bag.

Watching bees work is fascinating. They're quite involved with whatever they're doing and appear to have no objections about being watched. In fact, I could gently brush them aside if I wanted a handful of cracked corn and they wouldn't object. I've learned from keeping bees that as long as I'm slow and deliberate, and gentle, the bees tolerate my presence quite well. 

This bee is diving head first, looking for more corn dust. 

Back to the bees..... So what was up? They were collecting corn dust. I bet there was corn pollen mixed in, which probably started this endeavor. Some scent caught their attention, and now a team was collecting the fine corn dust. I watched for over an hour, seeing one bee after another pack their legs before taking off, presumably returning to their hive with their protein prize. Each bee would initially clean the surface corn bits, then start delving deeper, churning over the bits looking to gather more dust deeper down in the pile of grain. With some individual bees, all that could be seen was their little pointed butts sticking straight up in the air. As I watched, loaded bees left, fresh bees arrived. It was constant activity.

The two whitish "pollen" sacks are quite visible on this bee's back legs.