White Fuzz on Italian Bees - Pollen or Concern

[astack]

So I noticed that some of the foraging bees have this white powder looking substance on their thorax. See pics. I live in a town called Castro Valley, CA and it’s February. It’s unusually mild for this time of year and the bees are in full swing. I’m hesitant to do a hive inspection as I prefer to let them bee (pun). I’ve read that this can be associated with white pollen rubbing off on the bees from particular flowers.

Any concern? These are Italians.

[Dawn_SD]

Looks fine to me. Could be pollen, or could just be chitin (bee fuzz). If there are a lot of young foragers (likely at this time of year in your climate), they will still have hairy thoraces. This wears off as they age, because they can’t regrow it. I wouldn’t worry.

My bees in San Diego love rosemary too. Nice that yours has so many flowers! Rosemary pollen is cream to white, just FYI.