[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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