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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
Richard Cryberg <[log in to unmask]>
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 31 May 2015 11:30:44 -0700
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I have heard people suggest we need to find some factor X to add to pollen sub to make it attractive.  I personally doubt if that factor X is a nutrient.  Still, I see major differences in pollen attractiveness.

My wife has hundreds of cultivars of trees, shrubs and perennials.  It is not uncommon at all to have two cultivars one of which is very pollen attractive to honey bees and the other unattractive.  For instance she has one sedum that honey bees simply cover like it was candy when in bloom.  And others the bees ignore.  It can not be pollen availability that causes this.  I have seen bees work sweet corn pollen vigorously and ignore field corn.  I have never seen a honey bee work day lilies, iris or any of the hundreds of different cultivars of daffodils she has.  All three are simply loaded with pollen freely available.  Yet one little patch of crocus can have several bees working it hard.  Saint John's wort when in bloom is alive with not only honey bees but all kinds of native bees.  When spruce are dropping pollen it comes down in clouds when you shake a branch yet no pollinator seems to pay the slightest attention.  We have a bunch of Johny Appleseed
 crabs.  Some are modestly attractive to honey bees and others hardly have a bee on them when in full bloom.  You also have to watch closely at various times of day.  Pagoda dogwood is extremely attractive early in the day for pollen yet is stripped bare by noon.  So, in the afternoon does not have a bee on it.  Compared to most people I live in pollen heaven I think.  From the time of soft maple bloom in March until the last day the bees can fly in the fall they find a variety of pollen based on different colors coming into the hive all at the same time.  A week ago a number of my hives were bringing in newly painted barn red pollen as part of their mix.  No clue what that was from.  Some species of golden rod are very honey bee attractive for both pollen and nectar.  Other species are totally ignored.  One species is pollen attractive but has no nectar as far as I can tell.

Does anyone know of any research on what makes one pollen attractive and another unattractive?  Could it be something as simple as particle size?  Or ability to take an electric charge so the bees can get it to stick to their body with ease?  Or sugar content?  I do not think it is odor.  Some attractive plants have hardly any odor while some unattractive plants have quite a nose to them.  If it is odor it is something bees smell that I do not smell.

Dick


" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner."  Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists.   "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong."  H. L. Mencken

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