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: [log in to unmask] Good luck with your crops and hives, Rivka Nokrian, Tel Aviv, Israel