Dave Green said "we had continuous bloom of charnack (wild radish, often
called wild mustard), which is a poor nectar producer that makes large
quantities of high quality pollen."

Well, there are always exceptions!  Dave is entirely correct when he says
that generalizations must be modified to fit local conditions.

I have been taught that plants that rely on animals (including birds and
insects) to transfer pollen always produce copious amounts of nectar in
order to entice pollinators.  Of those plants listed by Dave, I have not
heard other commentary on wild mustard or henbit.  Up here in the Northeast,
alder is wind pollinated as are most willows.  Soft maples are copious
producers of high quality pollen and nectar.

In fact, the soft maple situation in the Northeast is one that I was
referencing where the bees are ill-served by being fed syrup and not also
being fed pollen.

Here in the Northeast soft maple is blooming 'now' (when days are warm
enough) and the brood nests are rapidly expanding based on that bloom.
However, the bloom will be over in a couple of weeks and there will not be
another similar bloom until early May (dandelions).  Many, many hives die
during this period, some say more than die during the winter as the bees
feed brood until they run out of honey and then both the bees and the brood
die.  Knowing this, much syrup is fed during this 2-3 week period from the
end of maple bloom until the beginning of dandelion bloom.

However, any hive that does not have enough nectar/honey to last this period
almost certainly does not have enough pollen.  It is extremely unlikely that
the bees failed to collect enough nectar in the fall to last through this
dearth, but did collect enough pollen.  Think about it!  If syrup is fed
without pollen the bees and the brood are both likely to survive until
dandelion, but the bees resulting from the brood will be of poor quality,
will be poor foragers, and will doom 1-2 subsequent generations to having
the same characteristics.

Lloyd
Lloyd Spear, Owner Ross Rounds, Inc.
Manufacturers of Ross Rounds Comb
Honey Equipment, Sundance Pollen Traps
and Custom Printer of Sundance Labels.

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