> I would like to monitor soybeans this summer for nectar quianity/ quality,  amoung various types,  Is there any  "laymans" way to evaluate either

Perhaps you could let the bees evaluate them.  Just make a square of a
certain area out of something light, wood or tubing, and lay it on the
field and count the number of bees at about the same conditions
(midday on a sunny day at a field within 1000 metres of a beeyard, for
example).  Bees are pretty good at evaluating nectar quality insofar
as sugar content is concerned anyway.   They will fly noticeably
farther for sweet clover than other crops.

I would be most interested in what you find Charles.  Here in Prince
Edward Island we have a very short season.  It was too short for the
older varieties of soybeans.  But early beans were bred (in Ontario,
I think), and one of the early varieties was Maple Arrow.  Bees do not
visit the beans here which I think were descended from it.  But one
farmer had a market for some beans for Japan to be used for tofu and I
did see bees in that variety.  I asked our local agricultural research
station, where I kept bees for years, to look for varieties that bees
visit, but they never did.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html