Pollen colour

[Quevy]

Hi

With these relative temperatures the ladies are very active and lots of pollen is coming in.

Farmers have now purple fields full of phacelia and lots of purple pollen is entered. However, there is still a bit of orange pollen. Can this be Jeruzalem Artichokes ?

 

[Amari]

My Jerusalem artichokes don't usually flower - but they did this year but I can't remember seeing bees on them - both the flowers and foliage are now well faded so I've dug up the crop.
Are your farmers growing phacelia as a green manure?

 

[Quevy]

Yes phacelia and mustard. So we have yellow and purple fields.
Green manure.
But If temperatures keep dropping, I guess there will be no nectar.

Till what temperatures are bees flying out and can plants produce nectar ?

 

[Amari]

I'm not an expert in temperatures needed for flowers to secrete nectar.
Temperatures needed for bees to fly seem very variable. My impression is that they are keen to forage in spring and will start flying quite vigorously at 10C especially if the sun is shining on the hive. Similarly in Autumn, collecting pollen. However in summer they sometimes seem lazy and a hive can be quite quiet even when the temp is in the high teens.
One eternal truth: the bees often don't perform according to our expectations!

 

[masterBK]

They don't just fly out to get nectar and pollen but also collect water to dilute stores and, of course, when they need to go they need to go (usually over the washing hanging on the line or over next doors new car!

 

[Quevy]

They don't just fly out to get nectar and pollen but also collect water to dilute stores and, of course, when they need to go they need to go (usually over the washing hanging on the line or over next doors new car!

Lucky lots of people here are ignorant about the origins of these droppings on their nice cars