(Describer) Titles: KQED. PBS. Deep Look. A bee wipes its mouthpart and face with its two front legs.

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(Describer) Another bee approaches it. Dozens of hive boxes stand by blooming flowers. The view zooms in on bees coming and going from one hive.

FEMALE NARRATOR: OK. Time to head to work. But before this honeybee starts her commute, she's prepping her tools...

(Describer) She wipes her face.

because honey bees collect pollen. You knew that. But it's not as simple as you might think. Plants want the bees to carry the pollen away and spread it to other flowers. That's pollination-- how plants reproduce.

(Describer) A bee rises slowly from a flower.

But bees also need to carry lots of it home. Pollen is a protein-packed food for the hive. Luckily they have the right gear. They are hairy, like tiny flying teddy bears. She's covered in three million hairs for trapping pollen. They're even on her eyes.

(Describer) The view zooms in on the black hairs on her eyes.

Here on her legs, they're shaped into spiky brushes

(Describer) Lines point to some of them. They point to those too.

and flat combs. When she lands on a bloom, she really gets in there. Nibbling on the flower's antlers detaches the pollen.

(Describer) They stick out of the middle of the bloom.

Time to pack up her hull. She cleans it off her eyes and antennae with those brushes on her front legs, like windshield wipers.

(Describer) Yellow chunks of pollen stick.

Here it is up close. That leg wipes the pollen right off her eye.

(Describer) Both parts are labeled.

Then she moves the pollen from leg to leg like a conveyor belt-- front to middle to back.

(Describer) She moves it while hovering in front of the flower.

The bee does this super fast while she flies from bloom to bloom, moving the pollen into special baskets on her back legs called corbiculae.

(Describer) Pointing to a microscopic view of a bulbous area, title: corbicula. Later, she stands on another flower.

She bends her leg, using it to squish the pollen into a ball, packing it together with a little saliva and nectar.

(Describer) She goes to another anther.

She can get as many as 160,000 pollen grains into each ball. She's hauling as much as one third of her weight.

(Describer) She flies off. Rows of the blooming trees stand in a field.

Back at the hive, meal prep is about to start.

(Describer) Bees crawl inside.

But the pollen isn't for making honey. The honey under this wax is made from nectar. They eat it for its sugar.

(Describer) A line points to honey in a cell.

Bees turn pollen into something completely different-- bee bread. That's their source of protein. Step one: find an open spot.

(Describer) They crawl over cells.

Step two: deposit your goods and pack them neatly.

(Describer) Standing over a cell, she pushes pollen off her legs.

Step three: let the pollen marinate with a hint of honey. And voila, it's ready. The pantry is stocked, both for adult bees and the babies that are growing in the cells next door.

(Describer) Lines point to darker cells. Title: Bee larvae.

The adults pop in to drop off a special bee bread snack-- a little home cooking for the hive's future hardworking flyers.

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(Describer) A bee sticks her head into a cell. Titles: Producer/Writer: Gabriela Quirós Cinematographer: Josh Cassidy Narrator/Writer: Lauren Sommer Original Music: Seth Samuel Funding for KQED Science is provided by the National Science Foundation Copyright 2019 KQED Inc. Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.