Borage for forage

The bed in front of the hives is planted with borage and phacelia.  In the summer the honey bees seem to take less notice of flowers in the garden but they are very keen on these.  I hope they don't get lazy.

The bees have been collecting pollen from the borage and the phacelia.  Borage pollen is blue/grey and phacelia pollen is navy blue.

It is said that honey bees forage from only one flower type at a time, unlike bumblebees and solitary bees. However, the bee shown above moved directly from the phacelia to the borage, presumably because the borage nectar was irresistible.

The honey bees are sharing the flowers with bumblebees, hoverflies and leaf-cutter bees.  Bumblebees also collect the pollen while the hoverflies seem to eat it.  The leaf-cutters are noticeably faster and noisier foragers.  They have pollen baskets on their abdomens but I didn't see any evidence of them collecting borage pollen.