Hello bee-people, I'm doing a research on melon pollination in greenhouses. Melon plants have both male and hermaphrodite flowers, numbers of which are changing with plant age and climatic factors. It seems that honeybees, which are brought in for pollination, do not discriminate between the two, but also seem to pay more visits to the male flowers. Male flowers are a bit smaller, nectar has a higher concentration in the male flowers (25% and more in winter), although in hermaphrodite flowers at times I can collect a larger volume (3-5 microliters). I wanted to carry out some experiment on honeybees ability to distinguish between male and hermaphrodite flowers. My idea is to put petry dished with honey/sugar solutions to draw the bees and later to use plates of different size and with different concentrations of solutions to see which of them the bees prefer. My hives are placed next to our local botanical garden, which is very small and has a few buildings (like a tropical greenhouse and the like) in it. I know the papers and books by Von Frisch and other, but I'm not sure about some aspects of such an experiment. Can anyone help please? 1) What is the best distance from the hive to begin the experiment from (I read somewhere that about 200m is the distance used)? 2) What is a good concentration to use for the solutions (I once used 40-45% but not many bees came to eat, perhaps because of the distance)? 3) How long do I keep the plates open, or how often do I have to change the plates and renew the contents? Not the experiment itself, just the beginning phase where I want to bring the bees to the experiment cite? Any information and ideas will be welcomed. Please forward any replies to: Rivka Nokrian, E-mail: [log in to unmask] Thanks, Rivka