forest hut

8th November, 2022
Tuesday

While Maya buzzes in the South, Inca colony, explores the North. Life is busy at Inca as well.

According to daily observations, we found that from the sunrise till around 11am, majority of bees bring-in pollen.

Now, what is pollen? Bee pollen, also known as bee bread and ambrosia, is a ball or pellet of field-gathered flower pollen packed by worker honeybees – imagine it’s structure similar to मोतीचुर लड्डू. It is used as the primary food source for the hive. It consists of simple sugars (fructose and glucose), protein, minerals and vitamins, fatty acids and a small percentage of other components. Among all these, protein content is the highest.

If atleast 50% of the incoming honey-bees bring pollen during morning hours, it means that there is enough suitable flora.

During this time of the year at Velvandi valley, Terminalia Paniculata (किंजड  in Marathi), Balsam (Terda), kurdu (Celosia Argentia) and Niger (Black Til) are in full bloom with flowering. Strobilanthes Callosa (Karvi) in the forest opposite to Forest hut farm flowers in September- October. Few karvi flowers are still around. Elaeagnus Latifolia (आंबगूळ) have started flowering as well. Shikakai will flower soon too. These flowers are high in nectar and pollen content.