>>The individual bees soon learn to get to the nectar without tripping
>>the flower, thus they have somewhat  limited usefulness for alfalfa
>>pollination unless large numbers of bees are employed per acre.
>>
>[snip]
>>
>>Alfalfa does not contribute much pollen to a honey sample because
>>of the aversion of our bees to the trip mechanism.  Therefore the
>>percentage of alfalfa honey produced is underreported.  Nonetheless,
>>without alfalfa,  I would not have much of a crop.
>>
>>Regards
>>
>>Allen
>
>I stand corrected - somewhere I knew that they would still take nectar, but
>my brain neglected to remind me of the fact before I posted. I *try* not to
>give misinformation, really I do...
>Mea culpa,
>
 All of the discussion about bees not working alfalfa may sound good on
paper, but when I was keeping bees in Oklahoma I had very good experience
with alfalfa honey production.  I did some migratory work for a few years by
taking about 50 colonies to western Oklahoma after most of the clover honey
had come in arount the Tulsa area.  I put those 50 colonies on about 80
acres of alfalfa that was being grown to produce seed. The farmer reported
to me that his production of alfalfa seed tripled when I started bringing
bees to his farm. My usual production of honey from that project was about
75 pounds per colony. I forgot to tell the bees that they were not supposed
to work the alfalfa.
 
Aloha
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