I am a ‘newbee’ so if this is something that is common I apologize in advance but does anyone know what this white knobbly stuff is, I could not make out if it some sort of eggs or what. I was not able to scrape it off the bee so thought it could not be something that just landed on it. thanks
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Hi Sarah,
I enhanced and zoomed your photo just to be sure, they look to be flower stamens, the long bits of the flower that contain pollen… all pretty harmless. Bees will groom themselves to clean this off, so the next time you see these they should be on the bottom of the hive. 
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Thanks Rodderick, I had zoomed it up and didn’t see that, it was so waxy and hard to remove (I haven’t succeeded) that I thought it must be something more dire but yay if that is what it is! Lol!
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Hi Sarah, I think that image is interesting, to say the least. It’s interesting that you found it hard to remove that stuff, probable nothing to worry about. I have never seen a better image that shows in detail the hooks on a bees feet. Absolutely beautiful.
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Nice observation about the feet.
I have no idea, but they look like little wax pellets she is carrying around on her back. LOL
I remember someone posting a while ago on the forum about bees recycling wax and carrying them on their legs, and they hadn’t seen that before.
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Thanks Faroe, I had actually come to the conclusion that it was wax as when I tried scraping it off it did feel waxy (the image is after my attempts)
- it was stopping her flying easily though so was not sure it was intentional! In the photo it looks like I pulled out hairs where I tried to get it off (it is not a mite - though some thought it might be) Just not sure that wax should just drop on her but I guess there is a lot of close contact amongst bees, I couldn’t find any other cases but will look for the link. It is just upside down binoculars and phone so very amateurish attempts!!
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