>The individual bees soon learn to get to the nectar without tripping >the flower, thus they have somewhat limited usefulness for alfalfa >pollination unless large numbers of bees are employed per acre. > [snip] > >Alfalfa does not contribute much pollen to a honey sample because >of the aversion of our bees to the trip mechanism. Therefore the >percentage of alfalfa honey produced is underreported. Nonetheless, >without alfalfa, I would not have much of a crop. > >Regards > >Allen I stand corrected - somewhere I knew that they would still take nectar, but my brain neglected to remind me of the fact before I posted. I *try* not to give misinformation, really I do... Mea culpa, Doug Yanega Illinois Natural History Survey, 607 E. Peabody Dr. Champaign, IL 61820 USA phone (217) 244-6817, fax (217) 333-4949 affiliate, Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Dept. of Entomology http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu:80/~dyanega/my_home.html "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82