Colour in the nectar

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Blacky50

New Bee
Joined
Feb 22, 2012
Messages
75
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Location
Bedfordshire
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
14
On inspecting my hives last week one colony had the occasional cell with a blue nectar in it.

http://s1299.photobucket.com/user/Blacky-50/media/003_zps160b43f4.jpg.html

Probably from a sugar source somewhere, however would the contents of one bee's honey stomach be sufficient to colour that cell? Or do bees pack nectar of the same type together?

My bees are in town and last year were just about in flying range of a field of oilseed rape. When i came to extract in July I noticed that the occasional cell had rape honey in as these stayed in the cells, suggesting that rape honey was concentrated in these cells and not put in the others, at least not in sufficient quantity.

I've checked pollen stores and these don't seem to be segregated by the origin of the pollen, so different pollen is packed in the same cell.

Are the bees more organised when storing honey?
 
Yep, pollen from that spikey round flower which I can't think of the name of at the moment! Comes in bright blue at this time of the year!
E
 
Yep, pollen from that spikey round flower which I can't think of the name of at the moment! Comes in bright blue at this time of the year!
E

Echinops or eryngium?

Phacelia pollen is also dark blue.
cazza
 

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