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Subject:
From:
"Dave Green, Eastern Pollinator Newsletter" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 6 Jun 1995 23:11:23 -0400
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In a message dated 95-06-05 13:58:14 EDT, you write:
 
>
>    In your Report from South Carolina around the first of June you
>wrote:
>
>>    One of the farm workers said to me,  Cucumbers must make a lot
>of honey,
>> because you always seem to be putting bees out there.
>> When I stopped laughing, I showed him the feed honey I was putting
>on some of
>> the hives, and explaining that they were there to make the
>cucumbers, not to
>> make honey, and that I was paid for it.
>
>    That's something I'd been wondering about.  Most of the bees on
>the Delmarva
>Peninsula are there for pollinating cucurbits of one kind or another.
>I'm
>planning to move my bees from their present home in suburban
>Philadelphia to our
>farm in Delaware, and I'm wondering what to expect.
>
>    From your comments, I take it that cucumbers don't produce much
>in the way
>of honey.  Is that right, or is it the quality of cucumber honey
>that's the
>problem?
 
   (John, I hope you don't mind my posting a copy to the bee list, as others
may have an interest.)
 
    Cucumbers only make a small amount of honey. There aren't that many
bossoms per acre, as say, clover, which has many blossoms in each head.
  Since bees are constantly consuming honey, it means that, if cukes are the
only forage source for the bees, we are lucky if they hold their weight.
 
  If it is hot and dry, or there is a long rainy spell, I sometimes have to
feed them.  They are do best on irrigated cukes in sunny but not too hot
weather
 
   Cucumber honey is not terrible tasting, but not the best either, just
so-so.
 
   Of course there is always the possibility of them finding something else.
 I don't know about the Delaware, but I used to know a beekeeper in NY that
claimed to make cucumber honey, while he was pollinating.  He was actually
getting quiter a bit of basswood, which has a rather sharp taste.  I honestly
don't know whether he really believed it, or was pulling everyone's leg.
 
   There are a lot of lima beans on the penninsula.  If you are near them,
you could make a real nice white honey -- if they aren't poisoned.  You'll
need to make sure the grower understands that label directions forbid
application of insecticides while bees are  foraging.
 
Dave Green                                    [log in to unmask]
PO Box 1215,  Hemingway,    SC    29554

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