Pollen Color

Tucker1 · April 25, 2008, 07:18:06 PM

Recently, I've been spending my lunch hours watching my bees. I have a hive located about 200 yards from my place of work. Needless to say this is very convenient. I've noticed that they seem to be bringing back lots of orange or red pollen. The weather in eastern Washington State has been very unusual. It will be snowing one minute and in the 50's 20 minutes later.....then snowing an hour later.

In spite of this, the bees just keep working along. They certainly don't waste any time. They are very busy.

Does the color of the pollen indicate anything worth mentioning ? I was under the impression that most pollen was yellow in color. This is mostly orange in color, with some being almost dark red. :?

Regards,
Tucker!

bassman1977 · April 25, 2008, 07:19:24 PM

It just depends on what the source of the pollen is. If there is anything else, I don't know what it would be.

Brian D. Bray · April 26, 2008, 12:17:27 AM

Pollen comes in almost every color from white to black. Shades of Yellow and orange are the most common but it is not unusual to find green, brown, red, and black too.

JP · April 26, 2008, 08:27:07 AM

Hey Tucker, isn't it cool to watch the bees bring in pollen?

I saw one yesterday on the landing board actually feeding on pollen, had never seen that before. She was just munching away, in plain site.

I also saw a few bees sharing a larvae the other day during a cut-out, was kinda gross and canibalistic.

Off topic, kinda, one night on ventrillo, Don, aka, the fatbeeman was telling us about cutzoo honey, its blue. How cool is that, blue honey!

...JP

Tucker1 · April 26, 2008, 06:26:24 PM

This morning I inspected the inside of the hive for the 1st time. I pulled the queen cage (which was empty) and checked out the frames. 3 frames were partially built up (60 % comb coverage) , and 2/3s of that fcomb was already capped. The bees just about covered 4 frames entirely. The capped comb was ever so slightly domed outward. It was great to see all of the bees working their magic. In spite of the weather here, they seem to be taking in less sugar syrup. They must be bringing in nectar along with the pollen. That's surprising, because nothing seems to be blooming. I just hived my bee's three weeks ago and we've had terrible weather just about every other day.

Thanks for the information about the color of pollen. I appreciate the help.

Regards,
Tucker

mairghead · April 28, 2008, 03:25:09 PM

I noticed the bees bringing in dark orange and mauvy colored pollens last week and figured out they were from snowdrop and henbit which are both blooming heavily around the hives right now. They are a pretty early bloomer and don't necessarily jump out at you when you first go outside. Out of curiosity about the color I found a neat chart on wikipedia.

Jackie

Keith13 · April 28, 2008, 05:09:05 PM

JP

not trying to be the spelling police or anything just want to clarify, are you saying kudzu the invasive vine/plant taking over the south or is it another plant you are refering to as cutzoo. just curious

Jackie what is the link to wikipedia

Thanks

Keith

mairghead · April 28, 2008, 06:01:43 PM

Let me send the link where I need to to get it posted. I have to figure that out, sorry.

Jackie

mairghead · April 28, 2008, 06:05:46 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen_source

mairghead · April 28, 2008, 06:08:20 PM

ok, I was trying to get the instructions as to how to post a link for new people and accidentally posted it without the moderator. Sorry about that, it was truely unintentional. I didn't think it would let me do it, I thought it would give me a warning screen.

Jackie

JP · April 29, 2008, 10:27:09 AM

Quote from: keith13 on April 28, 2008, 05:09:05 PM
JP

not trying to be the spelling police or anything just want to clarify, are you saying kudzu the invasive vine/plant taking over the south or is it another plant you are refering to as cutzoo. just curious

Jackie what is the link to wikipedia

Thanks

Keith

Keith, you're right I spelled it wrong.

...JP

Keith13 · April 29, 2008, 10:33:39 AM

Again not trying to be the spell police i was just wondering if it was the same plant

JP · April 29, 2008, 10:41:32 AM

Quote from: keith13 on April 29, 2008, 10:33:39 AM
Again not trying to be the spell police i was just wondering if it was the same plant

Same plant.

How's the situation with the mean hive?

...JP

Keith13 · April 29, 2008, 01:58:59 PM

They are gone. I brought them back last week and he replaced them with another nuc. The nuc he gave me was weak so he pulled some of the brood frames out of the mean hive and put them in my new nuc. Everything is going smooth so far

Tucker1 · April 29, 2008, 04:51:31 PM

Jackie: Thanks for providing the link to the site on pollen color. The information was very helpful

Regards,
Tucker

reinbeau · April 30, 2008, 07:49:39 AM

Quote from: mairghead on April 28, 2008, 06:08:20 PM
ok, I was trying to get the instructions as to how to post a link for new people and accidentally posted it without the moderator. Sorry about that, it was truely unintentional. I didn't think it would let me do it, I thought it would give me a warning screen.

Jackie

Jackie, don't worry, you did nothing wrong, you've obviously passed the posting threshold that proved you're a real person and not a scammer, so you can now post links. :)

rossman_2000 · April 30, 2008, 12:20:50 PM

I have noticed a lot of DARK BLUE pollen coming into my hive. I'm not sure where it has been coming from since there aren't many flowers blooming here in northern NH. It's pretty cool to watch them bringing it in.

-Jason

Dane Bramage · April 30, 2008, 01:27:22 PM

Quote from: rossman_2000 on April 30, 2008, 12:20:50 PM
I have noticed a lot of DARK BLUE pollen coming into my hive. I'm not sure where it has been coming from since there aren't many flowers blooming here in northern NH. It's pretty cool to watch them bringing it in.

-Jason

Cool! Siberian Squill?