I confess that I was one of those who regarded corn as an insignificant pollen source, until the whole CCD thing came about and people start to point their fingers at crop protection products. I just stumbled on this bit from an 1882 edition of the ABC & XYC of Beekeeping, by A I Root:

> The principal supply of pollen in our locality is from maple in the spring, and from corn in the latter part of summer and fall. Almost all flowers that yield honey, yield pollen also, to a greater or less extent, and when the bee comes in laden with the one, he almost always has some of the other. The red clover yields a peculiar dark green pollen, that pretty surely indicates when the bees are gathering honey from it. They often get a considerable load of honey, with but a very small one of pollen; but, if you did not notice very carefully, you would quite likely declare that they had gathered no honey at all. The pollen from corn is generally gathered early in the morning; when it is first coming into bloom, I have seen them start out in the forepart of the day, much as they do for a buckwheat field.


PLB

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