kyfarmer
02-11-2008, 09:47 PM
With regard to pollenation, does anyone have a link to any data that shows how bees improve yield on corn, soy or wheat?
sierrabees
02-11-2008, 10:23 PM
The only thing I know of is Steve Taber's book "Breeding Super Queens" in which he says that bees do poorly on corn pollen if that is the sole source of pollen.
dcross
02-11-2008, 10:37 PM
Corn and wheat are wind pollinated grasses, they will not benefit from bee pollination. Soybeans can produce honey, and may benefit.
BigDaddyDS
02-11-2008, 11:19 PM
Bees have been known to take some corn pollen for use in bee bread, but as far as helping to pollinate the corn plant? Nada. Like Dcross said, corn (and wheat) are wind pollinated.
By design, soybeans will shed their own pollen on to it's own stigma, and are for the most part, self pollinating. Bees will take down the nectar of the soy bean flower, but with regards to pollination, numerous studies cite a less than 1% cross pollination rate, due to bees or other factors.
Another study, performed in Brazil in 2005, seems contradicting. Their study has shown "some" increase in seed size, which they attribute to honey bees, but very little in terms of cross pollination. (When you read the paper, keep in mind the MASSIVE margin of error that appears in the control subjects.) While the findings appear promising, the results could be merely interpreted and presented in that way. Caveat emptor, as they say. And, you had asked for a link...
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/babt/v48n1/a05v48n1.pdf
(It's a 114KB .PDF file, containing 7 pages without photos. Most people should be able to download it without problems. Open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader.)
Enjoy!
DS
Robert Hawkins
02-12-2008, 03:01 AM
The bees will take corn pollen if that's all they can get. But there's not much in the way of nutrients for them in it. And it doesn't help the corn by any measurable amount. Soy may be helped a bit. But not enough to prove it. And unless the soy or wheat is allowed to go to seed (that means the farmer forgot all about his crop), the bees get nothing from it.
They do great on a wheat field that is allowed to go to seed. for about two weeks.
Sorry,
Hawk