Yes, I spent 25 yrs on a dairy farm, up at 4:30, and we often made irrigation sets for our corn at crack of dawn. I know bees will go after moisture in morning, especially in arid climates like the deserts of Idaho and WA, where I often saw bees on snake and rabbit brush just after daylight.

I still have yet to see bees using gutation droplets from field corn, and no one has shown me a photo.  That doesn't mean that they don't use gutation droplets, nor that they may be more attracted to droplets on other plants.

J.J. Bromenshenk
Bee Alert
Missoula, Mt


-----Original Message-----
From: 00000016be889671-dmarc-request <[log in to unmask]>
To: BEE-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sat, Feb 13, 2016 3:13 pm
Subject: Re: [BEE-L] Irreproducible studies

Jerry wrote:

"So far no one has responded to my challenge to show me photographic evidence of bees seeking out gutation droplets from corn.
Cotton has external nectaries, so that doesn't count.

I've raised and harvested corn - never saw honey bees going after gutation droplets in our semi-arid climate.  Weeks spent in corn belt during tassel - again, never saw a honey bee going after gutation droplets."

Are you an early riser, Jerry?  This is what Beowulf Cooper wrote in The Honeybees of the British Isles, p.22. NON-COLLECTION OF DEW AT DAWN Bees can drink from puddle margins or dewdrops at considerably lower temperatures than they can forage for nectar or pollen. Strains of bee from sunnier climates than our own get busy on a summer morning gathering dew, well before sunrise.  This behaviour is presumably related to conditions in their country of origin where water for cooling the hive as well as for brood rearing is likely to evaporate quickly as the sun rises and as the daytime winds rise."

Chris

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