Sun flower pollen

[jaseemtp]

So I have an oportunity to place my bees on a nice size sun flower planting.  I am wondering about their health though with being on a monocrop.  Is the protien content decent enough for them to raise brood and get plenty of nectar?  I am not going to be paid for this, just looking at putting the girls some where that they can build up more.

[duck]

hrmm I do know that some sunflowers are coated with "gaucho".  aka Imidacloprid. check it out.   best find where the farmer sourced his crop.

[BjornBee]

Most sunflowers put off little or no pollen, and most do not put off any nectar. Few varieties are good for bees. California "Grey Striped" are probably one of the better sunflowers for bees but unfortunately, commercially planted sunflowers are almost always coated with systemic pesticides. Ask the farmer to see a bag of what will be, or was, planted. I'll bet they are coated. Pink, purple, blue and green, are colors you may see.

You did the right thing asking. Many beekeepers think they are hitting the jackpot by finding some "nice" farmer who will "allow" a beekeeper to provide pollination for free, or even get paid a case of honey for being so nice to the beekeeper by allowing them to keep bees on their property.  :roll: If your not getting paid for your services, then there are many other locations way better than commercial farms with chemical crops. It's one thing to get paid, and take the risk to your bees.

You will not be getting any bumper crop of honey by placing them on sunflowers. And that holds true with many other commercial crops.

[AllenF]

Just how many acres are there of sunflowers?

[jaseemtp]

@AllenF around 500 acres
@bjornBee, I was hopeful they could build up off the sunflowers.  That way I would not have to feed so much.  It is about to dry up around here, not leaving us many other options that sugar syrup.

[AllenF]

If he is looking for pollination, you could get paid $$$$$ for putting 500 hives there.  1 hive per acre for sunflowers. 

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

[jaseemtp]

That would be nice but he is not going to pay. I was just loooking to put the girls out there to give them something to do. I would only have 10 hives that I would move.

[BjornBee]

Moving them back out might be much easier since they should be lighter.... :roll:

It's that way with watermelons and many vine crops also. At the end of the summer, they are always near starvation.

Good luck.

[jaseemtp]

I was hopeful it would be better than that... :?
Ohh well Cosco here I come to purchase sugar to keep em fed. :'(

[asprince]

Moving them back out might be much easier since they should be lighter.... :roll:

It's that way with watermelons and many vine crops also. At the end of the summer, they are always near starvation.

I pollinate squash and my bees will starve to death if I don't move them as soon as they are no longer required. I move them to sunflowers quite often. Although they do not get a tremendous amount of nectar, they do get some.

Steve 

[VolunteerK9]

You did the right thing asking. Many beekeepers think they are hitting the jackpot by finding some "nice" farmer who will "allow" a beekeeper to provide pollination for free, or even get paid a case of honey for being so nice to the beekeeper by allowing them to keep bees on their property.  :roll: If your not getting paid for your services, then there are many other locations way better than commercial farms with chemical crops. It's one thing to get paid, and take the risk to your bees.

Not to hijack the thread, but its funny you said that. At our last bee meeting, someone announced just this very thing-some farmer was willing to 'let' a beekeeper keep some bees on his truck farming vegetable plot for free. Not sure if he had any takers that night or not.