Bees tearing up - CORN!

[FordGuy]

Hi folks....I may be remembering wrong, but seems there were a legion of folks arguing bees don't get much pollen from corn, or that corn didn't need them, I don't know..

But yesterday, I went to a cornfield sewed with silver queen, and it was literally humming with bees...every tassle had four or five bees on it! Each one loaded down with pollen from the corn!

So I am absolutely a believer that bees get a lot of pollen from corn!!!

[riverrat]

bees will collect pollen from corn if nothing better is to be had. I have heard that corn will secrete a small amount of nectar during certain times of the day. Most people who collect pollen with traps will shut the traps down while corn is producing pollen. The quality of corn pollen or any other plant that depends on wind for pollenation is not as good of quality as plants that depend on insects for pollenation

[MichaelW]

I saw honey bees hitting corn really hard yesterday too. My thoughts
where, "Whats this rural legend that bees don't forage corn?" White
clover is blooming this time of year, so we are not otherwise in a
dearth or anything like that. I think things get said and we are a
little to quick to make it an absolute like, 'bees don't usually forage
corn'. The world seems simpler in absolutes, but its just not often
the case it seems. The farmer said his bees hit the corn really hard every year.

[BjornBee]

It should make you think twice about selecting your apiary sites near corn fields. I can not say about the sweat corn crops, but in discussions with two seed representatives last year about field corn, both said that 90% or more of the corn on the market was pretreated nowadays with some type systemic neonicotinoid pesticide.

I'm not a pesticide bandwagon groupie that thinks CCD is being caused by this sole factor, but I have made an effort to select future sites and farm operations by considering both corn and soybeans, which are from what i heard, two of the worst with systemic pesticides.

And even without CCD being in the news, it was always a consideration to apiary location in regards to pesticide contact with your bees. A few small poisonings knocking of 20% of your bees can really effect production and health. Pesticide issues were a problem long before CCD came about and should be something to consider in your operation.

[MichaelW]

The farm I visited was an organic farm and his corn looked great.
It may not work on the mega-scale, but it works well for him.
One of his corn patches is directly in front of his hives. No worries
with systemics with him, but he has plenty of other worries of course.

[Ardilla]

The document linked to by the Honeybee Nutrition thread here:

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220264

shows that corn pollen has a bulk protein content of ~15% - which is not great, but not bad for a wind pollenated plant.

[BjornBee]

Anything less than 20% protein is having your bees on a crash diet. And remember, that's 20% after factoring in the amino acid such as isoleucine, which will, if not above a certain level, further degrade the protein level by not allowing the bees to fully break-down and digest all the proteins available.

Corn pollen in no way is anything close to what bees need to maintain health.

[kbee]

I have seen my bees work sweet corn and ignore field corn. Is there that much difference between varieties? It would seem the bees would pick the pollen source that best meets their needs. If corn pollen isn't adequete and they are still collecting it, maybe we should provide a pollen substitute as well.

[FordGuy]

bees will collect pollen from corn if nothing better is to be had. I have heard that corn will secrete a small amount of nectar during certain times of the day. Most people who collect pollen with traps will shut the traps down while corn is producing pollen. The quality of corn pollen or any other plant that depends on wind for pollenation is not as good of quality as plants that depend on insects for pollenation


how would you know about the quality of pollen without some sort of analysis? Where did you get your information?

So if nothing better is to be had, is this pollen not "better than nothing?" my bees collect sawdust for pete's sake, I'd rather them collect pollen from corn!

[FordGuy]

It should make you think twice about selecting your apiary sites near corn fields. I can not say about the sweat corn crops, but in discussions with two seed representatives last year about field corn, both said that 90% or more of the corn on the market was pretreated nowadays with some type systemic neonicotinoid pesticide.

I'm not a pesticide bandwagon groupie that thinks CCD is being caused by this sole factor, but I have made an effort to select future sites and farm operations by considering both corn and soybeans, which are from what i heard, two of the worst with systemic pesticides.

And even without CCD being in the news, it was always a consideration to apiary location in regards to pesticide contact with your bees. A few small poisonings knocking of 20% of your bees can really effect production and health. Pesticide issues were a problem long before CCD came about and should be something to consider in your operation.
Great points, Bjorn!

[riverrat]

how would you know about the quality of pollen without some sort of analysis? Where did you get your information?

So if nothing better is to be had, is this pollen not "better than nothing?" my bees collect sawdust for pete's sake, I'd rather them collect pollen from corn!

Any good book on pollen will give you the break down of proteins of a particular plant pollen. It has been widely studied and determined that plants relying on wind pollenation have a lesser protein content then those that rely on insects for pollenation. When corn comes on people will shut down the pollen traps to avoid collecting corn pollen. Most people that collect pollen are selling it has a nutritional supplement. No where did I say that corn pollen is not better than nothing. bees will collect nectar and pollen from the best available source at any given time wether it be sawdust, corn or anything else blooming. when was the last time you saw a bee collecting sawdust in the summer when plants where in bloom. I bet there is not has many has you seen in your sawdust pile in the middle of winter on a warm day. Think about the reason this is happening:cool::D

[power napper]

If I remember right--corn pollen plugs up the pollen traps.