Watermelon

[rmaro]

Has anyone put bees on a watermelon field?
If so how is it, what should I watch for, any pointers?

[HONEYDEW]

watermelon in Oregon is hard on the bees because they use allot of sprays on the vine crops beware...More than once had pesticide poisoning of my hives

[Birdman]

I have heard that bees will starve on watermellon

[volleypc]

A local beekeeper was talking to some of us newbies at the club and he said if you are charging a farmer to put your bees on a watermelon or cucumber field make sure you are being paid more because the bees will struggle getting enough feed to make honey. Just passing on what he said, I have no experience with it personally. He is the president of the state bee association so I would take his word on it.

[Scrapfe]

Has anyone put bees on a watermelon field?...

The Young Harris Beekeeping program at the University of Georgia has an excellent guide on pollinating watermelons and other members of the cucumber family. Here is the link. http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/pollinat...tml#watermelon

There is also information here on which soybean verities produce nectar and which soybeans are useless to bees.

[indypartridge]

watermelon in Oregon is hard on the bees because they use allot of sprays on the vine crops beware...

Ditto for Indiana. I know a number of commercial guys who will no longer use their bees to pollinate vine crops.

[baldwinbees]

I have 2 hives on watermelons.the deal I have is they spray late in the evening&if my hives end up poisoned he replaces them with a hive of the same size.told him that could get expensive.watermelon isn't a good nectar source,so you need to check for other sources.It's good for pollen&my hives have have been there for 2 years&doing fine

[NCSUbeeKEEPER]

This is kind of beside the point of this topic, but one year my grandpa, throughout a good part of the season, would bust up a watermelon in front of a hive I had by his garden. I guess he thought the bees would enjoy feeding on it. All this accomplished was attracting wasps and it made the honey from that colony taste a bit weird. Like too sweet almost.

[HONEYDEW]

I have 2 hives on watermelons. if my hives end up poisoned he replaces them with a hive of the same size. It's good for pollen&my hives have have been there for 2 years&doing fine

You say he replaces them if they get poisoned, and you say your bees are doing fine, soooo are they doing fine or are they being replaced...

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

How long do bees need to set at the field? 3-4 weeks? I have a offer of 50 bucks a hive...is that reasonable?
Mike

[Hambone]

How long do bees need to set at the field? 3-4 weeks? I have a offer of 50 bucks a hive...is that reasonable?
Mike

Mike talk to Tecumseh about the melons. He has a ton of commercial growers by his house and knows a lot about them. Though he would not but bees on the ones in his area. He says it’s a death sentence if I remember correctly.

[swarm_trapper]

i have 130 hives on melons right now they look good but i keep fed on them every two weeks they are in them for about 5-6 weeks