United States 

Department of 

Agriculture

Farm Service Agency

Natural Resources 

Conservation Service

April 2009

Helping People Help the Land
1

2

3

4

5

6

7 8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19 20

21 22

23

24 25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35 36

37

38

39 40

41

42

43

44

45

47 46

48

49

51

50 52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

64 63

65

66 67 68

69

70

71

72 73

74 75

76 77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

Page 2

Bee Pollen Popular

The Pollinated

The Bee and the Flower

Many plants rely on bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, moths, flies, and beetles to move the pollen around 

(pollination). We call special plant helpers, like bees, “pollinators”! Pollinators visit flowers to collect pollen or 

the sweet liquid called nectar. As they visit the flowers, the pollinators brush against the reproductive parts of 

the flower, dropping the pollen from another flower they recently visited. About three-quarters of the world’s 

flowering plants and many of the food crops eaten in North America depend upon pollinators. No pollination 

would mean no apples, blueberries, strawberries, chocolate, almonds, melons, peaches, pumpkins, or many 

of the other important foods we love to eat each day. We would also not have plants that are used for 

medicine to make us feel better.

Certain plants that live in Montana actually attract pollinators! Some of these plants include American plum, 

sunflower, blue elderberry, purple coneflower, chokecherry, columbine, yucca, cherry tree, huckleberry, 

snowberry, aster, golden currant, and rocky mountain juniper. These plants and many others continue to grow 

and reproduce because of pollinators.

Connect the dots to see who’s 

pollinating this sunflower.

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder made by plants. The pollen consists of grains carrying male cells. Pollination 

happens when the pollen is moved to a female part of a flower. Most flowering plants rely on nature to move 

this pollen around. Without pollination, most flowering plants could not produce fruit or seeds.
Page 3

Bee Pollen Popular

The Pollinators

Bees – Bees include bumblebees and honeybees. 

Bees prefer blue or yellow flowers, like sunflowers, 

and flowers that smell sweet.

Hummingbirds – To survive, many hummingbirds 

must eat twice their body weight in nectar each 

day! Hummingbirds are attracted to orange, yellow, 

or red flowers, like the color of the red columbine. 

Like most birds, hummingbirds do not have great 

smell features, so they don’t care what the flower 

smells like.

Bats – Some bats travel more than 1,000 miles 

every spring. Bats like flowers that are large and 

white or pale in color. Some bat-pollinated flowers 

are open only at night. Bats pollinate many fruit 

crops, including bananas!

Draw a line from each 

pollinator to the kind of 

plant it likes.

Moths – What is the difference between a moth and a 

butterfly? Generally, the moth only flies at night and 

has multiple shapes of antennae. The butterfly flies 

during the daylight and has knobs at the ends of its 

wiry antennae. Both are attracted to sweet-scented 

flowers that are typically large and white or pale in 

color, including desert plants like the yucca.

Flies – Flies can be found on flowers of many colors, 

usually those that give easy access to nectar. 

Montana-grown cherries are an example of a plant 

that flies help pollinate.

Wasps – Although wasps are not vital for pollination 

in Montana, they still help pollinate the fruit we eat, 

such as figs and huckleberries.

Beetles – Beetles are the oldest pollinators on earth 

and pollinate many of the most primitive flowering 

plants, such as the aster. Beetles are typically 

attracted to flowers that are white or green and have a 

wide opening.

bee

wasp

butterfly

beetle

hummingbird

bat

fly

moth

Butterflies – Butterflies taste with their feet! 

Butterflies like flowers that are red, yellow, or 

orange, like the color of the purple coneflower’s 

center. Smell doesn’t matter to butterflies; they rely 

more on seeing than smelling to find nectar.

sunflower

purple coneflower

aster

red columbine

banana tree

cherry tree

huckleberry

yucca
Page 4

Bee Pollen Popular

Look through the pictures on pages 4 and 5 to see if you can find all the hidden pollinators. Find a bee, 

butterfly, hummingbird, bat, moth, fly, wasp, and beetle! When you find them, color them in.

Where Are the Pollinators?
Page 5

Bee Pollen Popular
Honeybees are fuzzy and carry an electrostatic charge that makes pollen grains stick to their bodies. Some 

types of bees actually carry pollen in a tiny basket located on their hind legs.

Wild bees live in hives that usually have only one entrance. The hives are made up of wax called honeycombs 

that store honey and house the baby bees, or larva. Bees have many different jobs. Some work inside the 

hive while others work outside. A beehive has one queen bee that 

creates all the baby bees and is served by hundreds of male bees 

and thousands of female worker bees that clean the hive, feed the 

larva, and gather the pollen.

The Pollen, the Bee, and the Hive

Page 6

Bee Pollen Popular

Did You Know?

There are 20,000 known species of bees.

Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans.

Bees fly an average of 13 to 15 miles per hour.

Queens will lay almost 2,000 eggs a day at a rate of 5 or 6 a minute. 

Between 175,000 and 200,000 eggs are laid per year.

The queen bee 

has lost her 

way. Can you 

guide her 

through the 

hive?
NECTAR

FRUIT

PRODUCTION

FLOWERS

POLLINATE

BEEKEEPER

APPLE

POLLEN

STUNG

POUNDS

MILLION

HONEY

All these words have 

something to do with 

beekeeping. Find and 

circle them in the word 

puzzle.

R

N

G

M

P

Y

B

E

W

B

D

L

W

D

U

L

G

L

F

L

O

W

E

R

S

J

U

E

U

C

T

A

P

O

U

N

D

S

U

H

L

Z

A

K

L

D

A

P

P

L

E

X

X

A

T

E

E

M

T

A

U

H

A

M

Z

V

I

P

O

L

L

E

N

I

C

U

G

N

R

E

N

J

C

T

R

T

N

E

R

O

K

I

A

T

T

X

M

N

I

E

Y

W

F

T

H

V

Y

J

N

A

R

B

N

U

P

E

X

G

U

P

V

I

E

O

N

N

O

T

R

E

N

S

N

R

W

J

Z

N

I

I

A

T

R

F

E

O

U

U

N

H

Y

N

D

L

L

O

G

A

O

K

H

M

T

I

J

S

Q

R

L

L

W

X

T

Z

E

Y

L

S

H

T

E

T

S

I

O

V

Z

C

N

E

D

Y

H

Y

S

Y

P

R

O

D

U

C

T

I

O

N

U

X

F

Q

X

X

T

O

B

L

V

N

J

Z

O

X

V

I

S

Hives and Honey – “Bee” a Beekeeper

Page 7

Bee Pollen Popular

Montana is one of the top 10 honey-producing states in the nation. 

There are about 200 beekeepers in Montana. 

Bees raised by at least 36 Montana beekeepers are sent to 

growers in California, Oregon, Washington, and other states to 

help pollinate almond, orange, apple, and other crops.

Montana beekeepers produced over 9.1 million pounds of honey in 2007 

with a value of $8.6 million!

Honeybees visit about 2 million flowers just to make one pound of honey.

Beekeepers have the important job of making sure bees have plenty of food and a good “hive” to live in so the 

bees continue their work making honey and pollinating fruits and flowers. 

If you decide you would someday like to become a beekeeper, there are a few things you will need to get 

started: a hive (or house) for the bees; bees (buy or collect them from trees and walls); protective clothing 

(which should be white or tan in color) to keep you from getting stung by the bees; and special tools (to 

harvest and handle the honey crop). You must keep your hives at least three miles 

away from other beekeepers’ hives. Hives should not be placed near homes or 

children’s play areas. Hives do need to be near fresh water and fruit and 

pollen sources. The best time to start your bee colonies is in the spring 

or early summer.

Bee Facts
04/09/MT Page 8 USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Bee Pollen Popular

The Disease that Makes Bees Disappear

Pollinators Are Important

Many bees are getting sick, and scientists are studying possible causes of the illness so, in the future, bees 

will be better protected. The disease, called “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD), has led to the disappearance 

of many bees from beekeepers’ colonies.

How do beekeepers know when their bees are getting sick?

• There are not many adult bees left in a hive.

• There is no build-up of dead bees in the hive 

 (infected bees just disappear).

• Other bees are not trying to steal food left in a hive.

CCD happens very quickly. Over a few days or weeks, most of 

an infected colony’s 40,000 or so worker bees leave and die in 

the field. Only a queen bee and some newly emerged young 

bees remain alive. This is a serious problem, not just for the 

bees but for all of us, because pollination by honeybees is 

essential to grow fruit, nut, and vegetable crops around the 

world. When the honeybees die, our food supply is 

decreased.

There is no answer to what causes CCD. Some ideas about 

possible causes include exposure of the bees to chemicals, 

infectious germs or viruses, colony stress, or problems with 

the biological development of the species.

What we can do to help? We can increase pollinator-friendly 

habitat in our backyards by growing the right plants!

In Montana, native trees, shrubs, forbs, and grasses can, with the proper mix, provide a continuous source of 

nectar and pollen needed by pollinators and other beneficial insects. The Natural Resources Conservation 

Service (NRCS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA), both agencies of the United States Department of 

Agriculture (USDA), encourage the planting of native pollinator-friendly plants that:

Preservation of pollinators is 

supported by both NRCS and 

FSA in selected conservation 

programs.

Answer Keys:

pg. 8 pg. 7 pg. 6 pg. 3 pg. 2

• Provide habitat and winter cover for insects

• Help suppress undesirable weed seeds

• Provide some biological control of insect and disease pests

• Reduce the risk of soil erosion

• Provide food and shelter for native wildlife species

honey

queen

worker

collapse

disease

field

plant

hive

colony

dead

neqeu

cposelal

hyone

eeasdis

eadd

nyocol

dielf

vihe

lapnt

erwkor

Unscramble the words on 

the left and match them 

with the “bee” words on the right.

neqeu = queen

cposelal = collapse

hyone = honey

eeasdis = disease

eadd = dead

nyocol = colony

dielf = field

vihe = hive

lapnt = plant

erwkor = worker

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 8

9

10

11 12

13

14 15

16

17

18

19 20

22 21

23

24 25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

36 35

37

38

40 39

41

42 43

44 45

46 47

48

49

51

50 52

53

54 55

56 57

58

59

60

61

62

63 64

65

66 67 68

69

70

71

72 73

74 75

76 77 78

79

80

81 82

83

84

sunflower

purple coneflower

aster

red columbine

banana tree

cherry tree

huckleberry

yucca

R

N

G

M

P

Y

B

E

W

B

D

L

W

D

U

L

G

L

F

L

O

W

E

R

S

J

U

E

U

C

T

A

P

O

U

N

D

S

U

H

L

Z

A

K

L

D

A

P

P

L

E

X

X

A

T

E

E

M

T

A

U

H

A

M

Z

V

I

P

O

L

L

E

N

I

C

U

G

N

R

E

N

J

C

T

R

T

N

E

R

O

K

I

A

T

T

X

M

N

I

E

Y

W

F

T

H

V

Y

J

N

A

R

B

N

U

P

E

X

G

U

P

V

I

E

O

N

N

O

T

R

E

N

S

N

R

W

J

Z

N

I

I

A

T

R

F

E

O

U

U

N

H

Y

N

D

L

L

O

G

A

O

K

H

M

T

I

J

S

Q

R

L

L

W

X

T

Z

E

Y

L

S

H

T

E

T

S

I

O

V

Z

C

N

E

D

Y

H

Y

S

Y

P

R

O

D

U

C

T

I

O

N

U

X

F

Q

X

X

T

O

B

L

V

N

J

Z

O

X

V

I

S