Will bees Have two forage jobs?

[KONASDAD]

I was watching the bees on a white crepe myrtle tree this AM. The bees are clearly collecting pollen, as I can see them w/ pollen baskets. I also see bees appearing to collect nectar w/ their tongues. Will one bee collect both pollen and nectar on the same trip?

[Brian D. Bray]

Bees will usually only collect one thing but with pollen even if they are concentrating on the nectar the bees will pick some up.  It' called double loading and the only time bees will carry more than one thing at a time.  Also if a bees goes for water--that's what he gathers from then on, same for propolis, nectar, and even pollen.  But like I said, sometimes it's hard to visit a flower without getting some pollen.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Are there many flowers where bees only get pollen from? Of all the plants in my yard I only ever see them collect nectar. Pollen seems to only be something the bees get from rubbing up against the flowers they visit. I'm really left wondering what plants the bees specifically go to collect pollen balls on their legs?

[Michael Bush]

Brian pretty much covered it.

Also, they have to have some nectar to make the pollen pellets...

[Anonimo22]

I put my question here, rather than starting a new thread beecause (bee pun yes!) I thought it was somewhat related to what these people were talking about. And having duplicate threads I think just makes it harder to find stuff.

So I was watching a Frederick Dunn video on Youtube (he does observational hive videos, and they can be kind of interesting), and he was talking about the same idea as you guys were talking about; how water bees only get water for the hive, and how the ones getting pollen also get only the same type of pollen.

But I wondered...

As far as the bees go, do they consider a job to get water the same job as foraging for other resources? Do they seem to act like all forage jobs are the same job, or do they seem them differently and for different ages with water collecting compared to other foraging? I wonder if they do water collecting earlier or at the same age as the others.

Well I suppose that's hard to ask but it is one of the things I'd been thinking about.

Is the scout job the same as a forager job too, or separate?

[yes2matt]

Last question first:
Scouts are foragers with most experience (oldest).

If I understand correctly,
Foraging for various supplies isn't segregated by age, but instead by recruitment. If foragers are recruited for pollen they go for pollen, if for water they go for water.  Recruitment is by democratic consensus-building about the needs of the colony.

All of T Seeley's videos are fascinating but here is a good primer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnnjY823e-w

[Michael Bush]

What they forage for is driven by feedback mechanisms.  If the colony no longer needs what they are foraging for, no one will unload them so they stop foraging for that and wander around the colony until they get recruited to forage for something else.