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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 5 Jun 2016 13:58:45 -0400
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> First and foremost, it's a small study, and I don't see anything, except for one finding, that is new.

The thing that I found surprising was that the bees apparently ignored the crops and foraged on the weeds. Has this been observed elsewhere? I don't recall. (That isn't surprising, my memory is waning). This may be somewhat related:

The study of Van der Moezel
et al. showed that the preferences of a
colony were not necessarily fixed but could
change from year to year. In their first study
year, the authors found that the bees mainly
visited one abundant plant, whereas a second
common species was ignored. In the following
year, this preference was inverted although
the availability of both plants was unchanged.

This observation could be explained easily if
the flower preferences of different colonies
were determined largely by chance. Thus, it is
conceivable that foragers simply continue to
visit the pollen source they happened to
encounter first. 

Bee World 86(1): 3-10 (2005)

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