??
> Observations by Bob Harrison and some others.  However, others have told
> me
> that bees avoid corn pollen like the plague.

Corn pollen is not a high priority for bees unless the bees have a need or
have nothing better to do.

Nothing better to do:

The main honey flow is over and little nectar is coming in but the hive has
thousands of foragers sitting around. My hypothesis is a bee brings in a
load of dried corn pollen. Does a dance and 10 bees head for the source.
Then a 100 and before the entrance is full of bees with loads of pollen. I
have found hives in some years with 6-7 frames of solid corn pollen.

Right now there are quite a few hives  in the yard above my bee farm.
Whenever the temp climbs to above 50F. and the sun shinning the bees go
crazy on the concrete below the slide on my large storage bin ( livestock
corn) looking for corn pollen. Goes on all winter and in spring until
Mustard, Henbit and Maples start to bloom providing fresh pollen.

Years vary as to the amount of corn pollen the bees collect. I currently
have at least 50 times the amount he has asked for but will not be fresh
pollen but from last season so will need to collect next season. *Might* be
a problem *if* a normal year. Drought years are when the bees really visit
corn pollen.

*in my opinion* feeding contaminated corn pollen the next spring when fresh
is also coming in is not as hard on bees as the bees trying to winter on
corn pollen. Another hypothesis is that bees do not winter well on corn
pollen which does have merit.

bob

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm