Caught this weird ###### bee in my garden today! Anyone can tell this absolute amateur are those huge red hind legs natural??? or a mutation? 
NZBF: RED-large-(hind).LEGGED BEE?!?!??? (pics included)
- Thread starter QUACKOHT
- Start date
That’s probably flax pollen (or something else with red pollen) on the legs of a normal bee.
Josh is on it.
Just to add to that for any non beekeepers, when bees go from flower to flower, the hairs on their body are designed to get pollen on them, and if you watch the bee very carefully, you will see that while flying between flowers it does this super quick thing with it's legs, flicks all over it's body and brushes the pollen down to it's back legs. This is done so fast you can hardly see it.
On the back legs it has hairs in the shape of a little basket, and the pollen is packed into those. As per your picture.
Just to add to that for any non beekeepers, when bees go from flower to flower, the hairs on their body are designed to get pollen on them, and if you watch the bee very carefully, you will see that while flying between flowers it does this super quick thing with it's legs, flicks all over it's body and brushes the pollen down to it's back legs. This is done so fast you can hardly see it.
On the back legs it has hairs in the shape of a little basket, and the pollen is packed into those. As per your picture.
And I've read somewhere that flying bees develop a static charge that attracts pollen
That's one of Dave Blacks writeups
nzbees.net
The bee is on a coriander flower, and I have both those flowers and that colour pollen in my hives at the moment.
Welcome to the forum @QUACKOHT . Stick around, you might learn a lot.
Beyond Bee Books: - Electrifying pollination
Of the many ways plants attract pollinators to their blooms the production of scent might be the most complex. Just as the formation of a flower or the secretion of nectar impose a resource drain on the plant the manufacture and release of volatile odours must be costly. Some plants seem to...
nzbees.net
The bee is on a coriander flower, and I have both those flowers and that colour pollen in my hives at the moment.
Welcome to the forum @QUACKOHT . Stick around, you might learn a lot.