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Harvey wrote.

The last time I looked "Alfalfa" and "Soy Beans" are a source for
pollination by bees.

Reply,

This is true - sometimes.

Alfalfa produces good honey, if allowed to flower.  And pollination is
important, only if the farmer wants seed.  In our area alfalfa is grown
for hay, and cut just as it begins to flower, when it is most nutritious.
 Seed is grown in a different state.

Soy beans are "a horse of a different color."  At our state bee meeting,
most will tell you, 'they cannot get honey from soybeans', though a few
will tell you, 'they get a good crop, however farmers will not pay for
pollination because it is not required'.  Occasionally you will find a
beekeeper that will tell you, 'they get a high price for pollination of
soybeans, but they have to feed the bees or they will starve'.

When someone started looking for answers they found that, on poorer
soils, soybeans produce little or no nectar and honeybee pollination
substantially increases bean production.  On the richest soils soybeans
produce a lot more beans and honey bees make a lot of honey, but the
presence of honey bees does not affect bean production.

Where I am, is somewhere in between.  When the soybeans are in bloom the
honey flow is much slower than in spring and earlier in the summer.
During this time there are some wild flowers and weeds in bloom, I know
not how much  honey comes from which.  As the hives gain only a couple
pounds a week during soybean bloom, I care not which.  The land owner
where my bees are located, sees no difference since I returned bees to
his property.

There has been discussion here in this group, about how latitude and
elevation and/or average temperature has affected the size and color of
the honeybee.  It is, I think obvious that these along with the available
moisture [weather] also affects the variety of floral sources and
quantity of nectar.

I was surprised to learn how much soil quality affects nectar quantity.
The Survey of St. Charles County Missouri describes 40 different soil
series and the variations within each.  In some places, at the line
between two different soil types there is an abrupt change in native
vegetation and even crops which will grow.  Moving bees three or four
miles in an area like this can double or cut in half honey production,
even from the same species of flower.

Micky