jcm05
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Post by jcm05 on Mar 24, 2010 17:47:53 GMT -5
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Post by gobmaters on Mar 24, 2010 18:47:36 GMT -5
Honey bees don't work tomato flowers. Only bumble bees do. The reason honey bees don't visit tomato flowers is that the tomato flowers don't produce any nectar, which is the raw ingredient for honey. Bumble bees visit tomato flowers to collect pollen. They start very early in the morning before the dew dries and work the flowers diligently. I have spent a lot of time watching bumble bees work flowers, especially the smaller bumble bees, which are very abundant in my area. The bumble bees know exactly which flowers are at their peak for pollen production and work down the row passing by the flowers that are not yet ready to shed pollen and the old flowers that are past pollen shed. I had a lot of trouble last summer trying to get pollen from the field to use on crosses in an unheated greenhouse where I was growing my female parents. I had to resort to getting to the field very early in the morning and collecting flowers which were close to but not quite ready to shed pollen and letting the flowers dry in my greenhouse until the afternoon when I could extract the pollen.
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peppereater
Breeder in Training
TREE HUGGER
just tell me when to shut up
Posts: 230
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Post by peppereater on Mar 25, 2010 12:56:15 GMT -5
The article points up one of my major concerns about pesticides/herbicides. You don't just have pesticide on the particular crop you spray, you put it out there into the environment and, for instance, in the case of DDT as an extreme example, it works it's way through the food chain. That and uncalculated incidents such as the Bopal, India pesticide release, and the massive spill into the Rhine some years ago, are consequences no one seems to consider when they buy their little bags of Diazinon, Dursban, Chlordane...Sevin dust...of course, these are all considered "safe" for consumer distribution, or were so until federal or state entities banned some or all of them...yeah dandelions and euonymus scale are so darn unsightly who cares what the actual "cost" of eliminating them is, as long as you can be rid of them for 7.99 a year.
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sorellina
Breeder in Training
Voice of Reason
Posts: 148
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Post by sorellina on Mar 25, 2010 15:49:24 GMT -5
That's really alarming news. I don't see a lot of honeybees in my garden. Like gobmaters, it's primarily big behemoth bumblebees and smaller sweat bees on the sunflowers. I like watching the slow bumblebees at work. It seems ridiculous that something so big with such small wings can actually fly. I don't use any pesticides except for diatomaceous earth and I wouldn't use that if I knew it was harmful to bees. I stopped using NEEM because I heard it kills both beneficial and harmful insects. I just deal with the critters as they come and try to share my space with them.
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Post by gobmaters on Mar 25, 2010 20:33:06 GMT -5
I am really surprised how early the bees start working the flowers in the morning. I have gone out when the flowers are still dripping wet from dew thinking the bees would not be working them yet because they had not dried down enough to shed pollen. However, there were lots of bees already present working the flowers, and it was hard to find many that were not already brown at the end of the anther cone from bee visits. That's why I had to take flowers that were not quite ready yet to shed pollen and dry them down to get pollen. It's sure a lot easier collecting pollen from flowers in the greenhouse where bees are not present. GOBmaters
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jcm05
Administrator
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Post by jcm05 on Mar 25, 2010 21:33:51 GMT -5
Interesting. Great pics. Will have to pay more attention to that this year.
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peppereater
Breeder in Training
TREE HUGGER
just tell me when to shut up
Posts: 230
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Post by peppereater on Mar 27, 2010 10:14:21 GMT -5
That's really alarming news. I don't see a lot of honeybees in my garden. Like gobmaters, it's primarily big behemoth bumblebees and smaller sweat bees on the sunflowers. quote] Sore, same here. I suspect that there has been tremendous colony collapse in my area. Immediately around, us, for several miles at the least, there is very little crop production, the area is primarily grazing land, and so issues of pesticide nearby shouldn't be tremendous. Somewhat to our East there is a good amount of wheat and hay being produced, and some legumes and corn, but bees wouldn't necessarily frequent those fields, aside from alfalfa. Bees were constantly at work here some 6 or 7 years ago, attracted by sand plum thickets, vetch, wildflowers, and our garden flowers. I could count on seeing hundreds or thousands of bees on any flowering fruit tree at one time. Now it's possible to see no more than one or 2 lone bees at any time, and it can be months between sightings. They basically have vanished. I have not looked into the incidence of colony collapse in the region, but lack of bees is odd, and somewhat alarming. Bumblebees and numerous varieties of bees, wasps and pollen collecting flies are everywhere through the season, so it's not an issue of any overall emigration or dieback.
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Post by gobmaters on Mar 27, 2010 12:51:04 GMT -5
Since the wild honey bees have mostly died out I have seen a much larger population of bumble bees in this area over the last few years, I guess due to less competition. Most of the honey bees I see here are from hives where they are treated to prevent them from dying. Have others noticed this in your areas? I sure missing seeing and hearing the buzz of thousands of honey bees working apple blossoms and other flowering trees and shrubs in the spring. GOBmaters
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Post by ozarklady on Mar 27, 2010 13:32:24 GMT -5
There are still some wild ones around. I am trying to learn how to offer a hive to this wild bunch when they decide to swarm this year. I garden carefully, and look before I grab, because there are honeybees, wasp and other bugs all gathering nectar. Wonder if garlic chives will invent garlic honey? yuck!
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