[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask]) writes:
Bees will gather and use the pollen from corn (Maize in the UK) .
Chris:
Yes, bees will gather pollen from field corn (called maize in UK and New
Zealand as I found out last month while there), but from what we found in the
USA, only if they can not find anything else to collect. The
bee-collected pollen that we collected from 53 field of field corn spread across
Illinois, Indiana, and Nebraska (we reported a summary at the Am Bee Research
Conf and Am Honey Producer in January, and we are working up an article for
publication) showed far less corn pollen than expected.
Mean or average corn pollen in the bee-collected pollen from colonies
adjacent to corn fields was 19%, the median amount of corn pollen in the
bee-collected pollen was 13%. On the other hand, most of the fields were
surrounded by lots of other corn fields - in fact the mean or average amount of
corn pollen available compared to all pollen sources was 72%, the median 73%.
In other words, we'd expect the amount of corn pollen in the bee-collected
pollen samples to reflect the amount of corn available to forage (we
looked at everything within a mile in all directions from each sample hive).
That clearly did not happen.
We found that bees do not much like to collect pollen from field corn
(grown to feed livestock or for biofuel such as alcohol) grown in the USA.
They do sometimes show more attraction to the pollen from some varieties of
sweet corn (the kind we like to eat).
They will also sup the 'guttation fluid'; the drops of sappy liquid that
appear on the leaves, which will contain any systemic treatments.
I'd like to see photographic, even better, video evidence to support this
often stated claim. In two years, across 53 fields, we seldom saw more
than the occasional bee in a corn field collecting pollen, and we did not see
any bees collecting guttation droplets.
Also, my father and I pioneered the growing and harvesting of field corn in
the Yellowstone Valley, near Billings, MT in the 1950s. We planted the
first fields and purchased first silage harvesting equipment. We
supplemented our dairy income by contract harvesting of field corn - cutting,
hauling, packing in open-trench pits. Lot's of yellow jackets and hornets around
at that time of year, and as the silage fermented, they were a bother - I
drove tractor with blade on pit, spreading and packing. I don't remember
every seeing any honey bees going for corn sap (guttation is xylem sap).
So, I'd like to see photographic proof, and if someone can get a picture
(not Photoshoped) of a bee collecting gutation fluid from corn, I'd also
like some evidence that this is more than a rare event. Video is preferred -
harder to fake. And please, state the variety of corn that you found to
attract bees to guttation droplets.
With all of the readers of Bee-L, if bees collect guttation fluid from
corn, I'd sure someone has or can obtain the video proof. I'm not saying it
couldn't happen. I've seen a few fields of sweet corn where bees actively
collected pollen, so maybe the same is true for bees and guttation droplets?
Jerry
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