You know honeybees make honey, but did you know they make bread too? Alfalfa leafcutting bees take a punch from a flower for your ice cream. Blue orchard bees make nests from mud and bring you almonds and sweet cherries. Plus, stingless bees protect their tasty honey in creative ways. And bindweed bees’ way of gathering pollen deserves a fashion award.

0:15 Honeybees and bee bread
04:02 Alfalfa leafcutting bees
08:02 Bindweed turret bees
12:55 Stingless bees
18:52 Blue orchard bees

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As they fly from bloom to bloom, honeybees mix pollen with a little nectar, honey and saliva. They haul this pollen blend back to the hive and deposit it in cells next to the developing bee larvae. This stored pollen, known as bee bread, is the colony’s main source of protein.

Every summer, alfalfa leafcutting bees in California pollinate fields from which growers harvest alfalfa seeds. Alfalfa makes a nutritious hay for dairy cows. These bees are much better at pollinating alfalfa than honeybees. As they visit alfalfa flowers, they trigger a spring mechanism that causes them to be hit in the face by the plant’s reproductive organ.

Bindweed turret bees are among the 70% of bee species worldwide that nest in the ground. After digging their tunnelshaped nests in California’s Central Valley, they gather pollen from morning glories, also known as bindweeds. Their shaggy legs get so covered in whitish pollen that they look like they’re wearing tiny pollen pants. Inside their nest, they pack the pollen into balls that will feed their offspring.

More than 600 species of stingless bees across Mexico, Central and South America, and other tropical regions worldwide, make flavorful honey, which is sold as a health product to treat ailments like sore throats. But they don’t have stingers to defend the honey. Instead, guard bees protect the nest entrance, biting intruders and entangling themselves in their hair. Some stingless bees also barricade their nest with a mix of wax and plant resins.

Honeys from both stingless bees and honeybees contain hydrogen peroxide, which is antimicrobial. Since stingless bees collect resins, pollen and nectar from a host of plants – often in the rainforest – scientists are studying their honey for chemicals that might have medicinal properties.

Blue orchard bees have hairs on their abdomen called scopa, which make them good at moving around the pollen of almonds, sweet cherries and other tree fruits. These mason bees collect gobs of mud with their pincerlike mandibles, which they use to build their nests in hollow twigs or straws inside wood blocks offered to the bees by growers.

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