J. Waggle wrote:
> I’m not sure that I am to believe the ‘last paragraph‘.
> Is it, Fact or crap?

I suspect it's crap Joe, but then I wouldn't be surprised to learn that 
some beekeeper somewhere mowed down his milkweed to save his bees. I 
don't believe it's common practice.

Clearly milkweed pollen presents a very real hazard to bees. In several 
summers of watching bees on milkweed flowers, I have seen exactly 1 dead 
bee dangling by a foot from a milkweed flower and it was because a 
pollen ball had gotten caught in a fissure in the flower. I have seen 
many bees with milkweed pollen balls hanging off their feet however, 
some were even foraging on plants other than milkweed at the time. 
Here's a picture of a bee with milkweed pollen balls on their feet on 
(or I should say "in") a Penstemon flower:

http://www.sweettimeapiary.com/pics/pollinia5.1.jpg

Here's a bee on a milkweed flower with a couple of pollen balls on it's 
feet:

http://www.sweettimeapiary.com/pics/pollinia2.1.jpg

There are a few other "pollinia" pictures in that directory.

So not all bees end up caught in a milkweed leg-hold trap. That said, I 
have seen many bees almost unable to fly because of huge ungainly pollen 
balls on their feet. Assuming they make it back to the hive, other bees 
may manage to pull off the pollen balls leaving the pollinia attached- 
then you see bees dragging themselves around on the landing board of 
their hive with "dishrags" hanging off their feet, barely able to walk 
and apparently unable to fly. I suspect that for many bees, one good day 
on the milkweed is all they get.

George-

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