>It certainly seems, based on what I’ve read thus far, that one needs access to, or needs to create, a local pollen reference library in order to do pollen analysis of floral sources in honey.


I've done that for my area. Over the last several years, I've walked the fields and wetlands within flight range of my apiaries looking for foragers. My interest was to create a reliable bloom calendar. I photographed their pollen baskets for color and identified each plant species. As of the end of last season, I have 103 species where I saw bees foraging but only a fraction of that amount had pollen I could record. At this point, I could probably get close to doing seasonal microscopy on pollen grains if I had a reference for all the specific exine shapes for my pollen-producing plants. 

The way I understand it, the art of melissopalynology is knowing how to evaluate what you see in the scope in terms of both shape and quantity. One needs to know those plants that produce lots of pollen and how to interpret their contribution as a constituent of the honey. 


Bill Hesbach
Cheshire Ct.

             ***********************************************
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