Hello Dave and other Bee-Liners:
 
        I've been working on melon pollination in the past few years and
one summer I even looked into squash pollination in Ontario, Canada. The
fields where I do my research is in the desert area of Israel and the
work has been taking place both in summer and in winter, in enclosures.
 
 
>  I often check fields for pollinator activity.  Last week I looked at a
> watermelon field, with no beehives in sight, and on several counts, averaged
> 35 - 40 bees (all honeybees) sighted in one minute.  I do not know if there
 
This is a very good figure of bees per one minute, although 25 are OK as
well, since the workers tend to visit a lot of flowers on each "round". I
sometimes counted more than 60 and at other times only 15, with a fairly
good crop too.
 
> The vines had been planted early, and looked
> healthy and vigorous.  There was a lot of bloom.
 
Sometime this could be a problem: a very strong and large vine means that
the plant has put all it's forces together to produce foliage instead of
flowers and fruit. And the flowers are at times covered with leaves and
can't be seen by bees.
 
>  At mid-morning (maximum pollinator activity) on a partly cloudy, 80 degree
> day (ideal pollinating weather) with plenty of soil moisture, I watched for
> five minutes and saw only 2 honeybees and 2 tiny solitary bees.
 
The best time to check the field for bee activity is early morning,
when temp. are just going higher than 65F (18C). At that time pollen is
available and nectar production is just beginning. If there are solitary
bees they too will be there early and finish collecting the morning crops
by mid-morning. I sometimes visited my fields at 6am and found plenty of
bees there.
 
> from pesticide misuse, and I assume the bumble bees and solitary bees were
> affected similarly to honeybees.
 
One major problem with cucurbits pesticides: as bees will visit the
flowers mainly for nectar it is *forbidden* to use any systemic
pesticides that would enter the nectar! There are others, which are less
dramatic, but do what is expected of them. One more thing to think of is
the time of  day the pesticides are sprayed: the best time would be
night, when bees are back into the hives. Otherwise, it is advisable to
shut the entrance of the hive (and add some sugar-water).
 
One more thing: I sometime see that a beautifully flowering field gets no
bees and I find no logical reason. But here's one to think of: are the
cucurbits grown producing any nectar at all? There are some varieties
that don't and bees do tend to ignore them...
 
Hope this answers some questions. Be happy to share more - please contact
me directly on:
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Good luck with your crops and hives, Rivka Nokrian, Tel Aviv, Israel