Cotton pollen is very light colored, but not yellow, it's just off-white,
and the bees will bring in large quantities of it when they work cotton.
Over the years, I've had a lot of bees poisoned from cotton spraying, but
very little honey. I would say there's been a bit more with the coming of GM
cotton, which is sprayed fewer times, but all it takes is one badly timed
application at mid-morning when all the bees are in the cotton field to do
some very serious damage to the hives. I believe any variety should make
40-50 lbs of honey (and it's nice honey!) if they don't get knocked down.
I've only had that happen in an occasional yard over the years.
Generally pyrethroids are quick acting and the bees never make it home. You
can find them dead in the rows in the field. You don't see a lot of evidence
of damage at the hive, except that the hives suddenly are weak, and cannot
feed themselves, because they've lost their field force. Hives thus weakened
will never make a surplus, and sometimes will need feed to survive.
Organophosphates will generally show up a lot more a the hives - with dead
bees piled up in front sometimes. There also may be brood death, from
contaminated pollen. These are slower acting and do a greater damage.
Of course application when bees are foraging in cotton is a label violation.
You will help save ALL bees, if you report such applications in violation to
your state pesticide cops. Applicators don't like being investigated - they
will tend to be more careful.
Of course, in some states, applicators notify beekeepers, which is actually
a statement of intention to apply in violation of the label, since there is
no protection for wild bees, feral honey bees, or bees that the beekeeper
can't protect for whatever reason. On any given late July day, when I was
in the business, I would have bees exposed to applications in several
locations on blooming cotton. Only if they did it right, with the
application being done after the bees were done foraging, was there ever any
real protection, as I could not be in several places at one time. Also,
penning up bees on one of these 100-degree days would probably be fatal, as
well.
Dave in SC
Retired
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike S
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2011 6:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BEE-L] Cotton Varieties and Honey Production
Has there been a study done concerning which varieties of cotton are the
best honey producers? I looked in the archives and was unable to uncover
any mention of this. I am located in southern Alabama (LA - Lower Alabama)
which is a big producer of cotton. In fact, some of my hives are located on
the periphery of two cotton fields with others being well within a 1 1/2
mile flight range. As far as I know, I have not produced a surplus of honey
in the colonies I've had next to cotton fields in the past eight years or
so. Seems the months of July and August produce a real dearth of nectar.
I'm pretty sure that my bees are recovering pollen from the cotton since I
have noticed a bright yellow pollen being brought in in noticeable amounts.
Mike in LA
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