The bees are always working something when available, therefore something better or bigger must be drawing their attention.
There are three primary factors in forage selection;
1) sweetness of crop (sugar content)
2) abundance of crop
3) distinctiveness of crop (color and smell of flower)
if all other factors are equal, the one of those 3 selection factors that outshines the others will win. So you have something else in their forage range which has been selected over the buckwheat, either because the raw nectar is sweeter, there is more available, or the color of the flower is more striking to the bees' eyes and so was selected instead. Bees don't really "choose" a crop, but the bees go through a set of processes which reinforces selection of the best crops based on quantity (abundance), quality (sugar content), and ease of finding (color and odor).
If there is a huge crop of really good nectar bearing black flowers but the flower is odorless, and a smaller crop of white/ultraviolet flowers with lots of odor, but poor nectar yields, the white flower stands a good chance of being selected because of how the bees make their selection. Why? Well to keep it simple, the poorer white/ultraviolet flower are screaming "PICK ME, PICK ME!" and leave a heavy recognizable scent for the bees to follow, while the black flowers metaphorically hide their treasure. If the same ultraviolet flowers weren't present the black flowers may very well make the cut.
Scot Mc Pherson
McPherson Family Honey Farms
http://linuxfromscratch.org/~scot/
http://beewiki.linuxfromscratch.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/OrganicBeekeepers/
-----Original Message-----
>From: "Janet A. Katz" <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: 8/12/05 7:03:27 AM
>To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: [BEE-L] Buckwheat
>
>A small farm up the road where I have two beehives planted buckwheat this
>spring at my request. I have had customers asking for dark honey and felt
>that the late July bloom would fill in a dearth in our area. The field was
>in full bloom with white flowers and not a bee to be found on them anywhere.
>When I mentioned this to a fellow beekeeper, he said that it had to be a
>particular type of buckwheat, i.e., Japanese. I'm at a loss for why the bees
>didn't work the buckwheat, when there really wasn't anything else blooming.
>Anyone out there have any answers for me? I'm located in Morris County, NJ
>(north central in the state).
>
>Janet A. Katz
>[log in to unmask]
>
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