Pine Trees

Schoon · April 13, 2010, 09:06:15 PM

Do bees get pollen from pine trees?

AllenF · April 13, 2010, 09:30:52 PM

Now that's a good question. I have wonder about it and oak trees in the past.

gardeningfireman · April 13, 2010, 11:36:43 PM

I have wondered about that, too. I know some types of pines have loads of pollen, and I have seen bees on them, although not in great numbers. If not, it seems like a waste!

TheMasonicHive · April 14, 2010, 09:47:33 AM

If you get honey from the Balkans a lot of it is a super dark "pine" honey.

I have to imagine that they get SOMETHING from pine, but I have to be honest with you.

I love honey, but pine honey is one of the most awful things I've ever tasted.

Eshu · April 14, 2010, 10:24:02 AM

The "pine honey" was probably honey dew honey - made by bees collecting "dew" off aphids.

Bees generally don't collect pollen from wind pollenated plants (pines, grass, corn, etc.) unless they are really hard up for pollen. Pollen from wind pollenated plants usually have low protein content.

Scadsobees · April 14, 2010, 10:56:12 AM

Norway spruce actually gives off a sweet sap...not nectar, not aphid poop :shock:, but a sweet secretion that the bees collect. I've got a few of these next to my hives that will be buzzing during that time. I haven't noticed anything in the honey, however, probably just not enough to make a difference.

Not strictly pine, but a needlebearing evergreen....

I don't think that the bees get pollen from the pines...I have one of those too, and the pollen just goes into the air en masse. Maybe if there were a pollen dearth, but there's never a dearth in my area when the pines dust everything.

AllenF · April 14, 2010, 05:42:50 PM

My bees love the tops of my corn

sc-bee · April 15, 2010, 01:41:25 AM

Not from typical southern pines (loblolly and longleaf). Wish they did--- pine pollen is the worst I can ever remember this year.

John Schwartz · April 15, 2010, 02:06:24 PM

Here's a previous/related/handy thread: http://is.gd/buc7x

Joelel · April 16, 2010, 02:06:48 AM

When theirs nothing else around they get nectar and pollen from pines,it's dark and bitter honey and called honey dew.

sc-bee · April 16, 2010, 11:41:57 PM

Quote from: Joelel on April 16, 2010, 02:06:48 AM
When theirs nothing else around they get nectar and pollen from pines,it's dark and bitter honey and called honey dew.

I think Honey DEW is from bug poop not pine trees!!!

Bee Happy · April 17, 2010, 12:44:18 AM

Quote from: AllenF on April 14, 2010, 05:42:50 PM
My bees love the tops of my corn

I lost the movie I made of mine - 2-5 bees per stalk - sounded like an airshow.

I have noticed them bringing in pollen when cedar was the only thing (that I knew of for sure) was pollenating - pine family-ish.
(didn't see them in the cedars, but didn't see anything else pollenating either).
short answer: I suspect that they will feed from the pine family.

Michael Bush · April 17, 2010, 04:12:19 AM

Bees work almost any pollen in a pollen dearth, so I would guess they would work pine the same as other types of low quality pollen...

Honeydew varies. Anything that is not from nectar is usually called that. Some is from tree sap. Some is from the excretions on the aphids that eat the tree sap...

It's all bitter and strong tasting and popular among people who like that sort of thing.