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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