Oak, be it honeydew or pollen, is a big item with bees and a big problem in some areas.  While state apiarist in NJ, I found Blueberry pollination was adversely affected in southern NJ by the concurrent oak bloom.  The native forest in the commercial blueberry growing areas is almost virtually pure pine and oak.  After a day or so on site the bees were all in the oaks leaving the blueberries to local native non-apis bees, mostly southern blueberry bees and various bumble bee species which were more effective and common on the field margins.  Timing of the arrival of naive pollination units to peak bloom was the key to successful pollination, too early and they had scouted the area and moved to the oaks before the blueberry bloom. 

Further there is antedocal evidence of a correlation between oak bloom and EFB.  That is a CORRELATION not proof of a cause and effect.  (As an aside, the "small cell" crowd might want to make sure they understand the difference between the two terms.  They are very heavy on CORRELATION and very short on PROOF.)  Most areas where chronic EFB is a problem also tend to have large oak populations.

It is a common misconception that bees don't collect pollen from wind pollinated species.  Corn, sorgum, various grasses and other "wind pollinated" species are often very attractive to bees in general.  Likewise the misconception that there must be an attractive nectar source for pollen collection to occur and that POLLEN COLLECTION is a "side effect" of nectar collection is dead wrong.  The problem is people fail to understand the difference between POLLINATION  and POLLEN COLLECTION, two very different matters, which may or may not occur at the same time.

Just to make things even more "murky" is that corn like cotton has extra floral nectaries.  If you doubt me, see Mr. Pellett.


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