Grass pollen

[AllenF]

My yard in the front is mostly centipede grass and has not been cut in a couple of weeks.   I was planning on doing it until I walked to the mail box this morning.   I bet I saw a dozen bees in 10 feet of yard working that pollen.  Made me feel good that I have not gotten around to it as there is not much out there for the bees now.  I know they have no nectar coming in as they are now burning through honey.   

[luvin honey]

Isn't that great? I felt better last year about letting my broccoli flower after I saw bees in it, too. :)

[FRAMEshift]

You mean there is useful nutrition from grass blossoms?  I did not know that the bees could get nectar or useful pollen from grass.  It's wind pollinated so there is no reason for grass to make nectar.  And there is no evolutionary pressure to make the pollen nutritious or digestible to bees.

[tecumseh]

it is my understanding that most grass pollens (and yes bees will collect the stuff) is just about the equivalent of pine pollen.  both are just about the equivalent in nutrition of you eating sawdust... or more directly you feeding sawdust to a young child.

[winginit]

My bees are surrounded by corn fields and were bringing in corn pollen exclusively (I think) for at least a month. I did some limited research and found that while wind pollenated, bees can get pollen but not nectar from corn. However, as far as the bee goes, corn pollen is an inferior pollen source. Corn is in the grass family.

My concern was more that the only pollen being collected at the time was corn pollen. I think as long as they have a mix of pollens, it's okay.

[Kathyp]

i let my place to back to nature this year.  didn't mow all year.  was about to get out there and hack down the fire hazard, but rain came :-).  saved me some work!

i figured the bees will take what they need.  i have had them on grass and corn even though there are other things still out there.

[diggity]

Just curious - what makes corn pollen inferior?  They mainly need it as a protein source, right?  Does corn pollen protein not have the right amino acid profile?

Thanks,
-Diggity

[winginit]

Of course I can't find the study now, but it may have been sterols and affect on larval survival. Here's a different study that would seem to refute the negative impact of corn:
http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/11237/1/IND84020662.pdf

And of course, there are many studies on the impact of bt corn on bees, the vast majority of which show no negative impact of bt corn. One study even showed that one type of bt corn (Cry-b for beetles) killed moth larvae. But as someone stated on another post, none of the studies that I have scanned seem to follow the bees for very long.

[tecumseh]

diggity writes:
Just curious - what makes corn pollen inferior?

tecumseh:
usually when I look at pollen or pollen substitute I am most concerned about the amino acids in the pollen that are critical for the growth and maintain body mass of the bees.  you might wish to download 'fat bees, skinny bees' which was produced in Australia and is quite revealing in content when it come to question of the quality of pollen.

[diggity]

Interesting stuff - thanks folks.  Reading Fat Bees Skinny Bees brings up a related question on pollen substitutes, but I'll save that for a different post.

Thanks,
-Diggity