Nectar from figs tree?

Fannbee · July 21, 2007, 11:22:23 AM

Besides the birds, bees are all over my 2 fig trees. They are drinking the juice from where the birds pecked the figs.

I guess it is like sugar water.

My wife is going to have a tizzy. Besides the birds, she has a coon that she pushes away. Now the bees.

Kathyp · July 21, 2007, 11:42:59 AM

i have figs also. the bees will not hurt the figs, but they will take advantage of what others do. last year i took some over-ripe figs and opened them by the hive. the bees had a great time. they also love the grapes.

Cindi · July 21, 2007, 12:07:38 PM

I remember, somewhere in the cobwebs of my mind, about fruit farmers blaming bees for piercing their fruits and causing damage. Such a bad rap for the bees.

The bees do not puncture or destroy fruit. Their proboscis is quite tender and I don't believe that they have the ability or could even pierce the skin of fruits. Yes, they are opportunists. They will take over drinking the fruit juice after it has been pierced by other types of creatures, such as birds. The bees do not destroy the fruit, in that, they do not open a wound in the skin. Too bad about the uninformed human beings. Have a wonderful day, great life. Cindi

JP · July 21, 2007, 12:38:25 PM

I wouldn't think that bees would purposely chew through the skin of fruit, but could they? My vote would be a definitive yes. They chew through news paper, and queen candy, which is tougher than news paper, tougher than the skin of figs, or grapes for that matter. Cindi, now about those cobwebs in your mind?... :-D

Fannbee · July 21, 2007, 02:38:53 PM

I am not blaming the bees for pecking the fruit, the birds do that. For her to pick the figs she is going to have to be alittle more careful.

We have a little war between us (all in fun). Her horses...my bees. This will give her another angle to complain about the bees. Of course, to her the horses are absolute angels with no faults.

Moonshae · July 21, 2007, 02:46:52 PM

When bees go on cleansing flights, you don't smell it...

doak · July 21, 2007, 02:55:07 PM

Fannbee is right, the bees don't start it.
Thats what hurts their reputation.
They are caught after the fact. ;)
doak

Michael Bush · July 21, 2007, 07:22:16 PM

There has been much research on the subject and the conclusion was they can't chew through fruit skins. When they chew through candy and when they chew through newspaper, they have the added advantage of saliva to soften it. But it doesn't soften a fruit skin.

JP · July 21, 2007, 07:27:27 PM

Michael, why wouldn't their saliva soften a thin skinned fruits skin? Is it because in the hive you have the benefit of thousands of bees working together and you just don't have the numbers foraging on fruit? I wonder what would happen if you placed fruit inside the hive? Has someone tested this?

Michael Bush · July 21, 2007, 08:16:08 PM

Fruit skins are waterproof. Newspaper is not.

Bennettoid · July 21, 2007, 11:02:49 PM

OH CRAP, I need to check my Grapes.

TwT · July 22, 2007, 12:06:02 AM

open figs also will attract yellow jackets, they are worst to pick around than the bee's, so tell her if she gets stung it probably is yellow jackets,

JP · July 22, 2007, 02:41:34 AM

Michael, not to nit pick but queen candy I bet, would hold up a while in rainy conditions.

nepenthes · July 22, 2007, 02:58:51 AM

True it would, but when you have X amount of bees salivating over it, then sucking it up, it would go away pretty fast.

JP · July 22, 2007, 03:22:32 AM

And there goes my assumption, that bees that want to open the skin of a grape or a fig, have the means to do so.

Cindi · July 22, 2007, 10:45:31 AM

I think that bees are too busy looking for nectar /pollen producing plants that they would not go out in search of a fruit (unless it has been pierced by some predator and they happened upon it). Not their nature, they have a different agenda with their busy little lives. Have this wonderful day, Cindi

Mici · July 22, 2007, 07:16:23 PM

those who want to have a quality frozen grape harvest invite bees to their vinyards. what wasps destroy, bees heal. at least that's what i read somewhere, they actually prevent the grapes from rottening so...yeah that's bout it.

JP · July 22, 2007, 07:25:43 PM

my curiousity in this post was not aimed at whether honeybees actually pierce the skin of fruit, but if they indeed had the means to do so. I'm glad they don't because they would get a bad rap for doing so. I say birds win out for piercing ability. I had one of those horse figs in the back yard a couple of yrs ago, and if I didn't beat the birds to the ripe fruit they would eat or waste the fruit. I put netting over the tree and it helped a little. Eventually, the tree reached the end of its long life and we cut it down, it was very old, but we did enjoy the figs, what figs the birds didn't eat.