Pollen identification

[Emma]

Hi Gavin,
Yup, that Emma I've been too busy showing off the dusty medieval tower this weekend to get online again till now. But I did get to my apiary again this evening, and the foraging was interesting. There's definitely a flow on. It's definitely strong in the evening - second time that they were still going for it at 5:30pm, while lunchtimes have been quite quiet. And this time I saw bees who had both the little pale triangles on the front of their heads, and yellow pollen loads on their baskets. I'm increasingly sure the yellow is ivy. There's a lot of it round here, and I walked past some yesterday that was loud with bee flies and wasps.
So maybe my pets aren't close enough to find balsam, after all. Their powdered noses were much less dramatic than the photo you've posted. Pity!!
Right, I'm off to browse photos of bees foraging ivy...
Emma

[Mellifera Crofter]

... I'm certainly an Emma that you know! ...

Not just 'an' Emma - but *that* Emma (to quote Gavin). I'm glad my guess was right. You may be in Fife now, but no doubt I'll see you around again soon enough. It sounds as though your bees are lucky to have a very good autumn home with all that forage around them.

Kitta

[gavin]

Just wondering out loud about the ivy. The pollen is a deep yellow - and I think a pattern on the face would be yellow rather than whitish.

The Russian vine (Fallopia baldschuanica) is out now and quite conspicuous in suburbia. Anyone know what colour of pollen it gives (seems whitish in this photo), and whether bees get their faces marked with it (you could imagine these short stamens doing the business)?

[GRIZZLY]

My bees are foraging in the Himalayan balsam at the moment - they're coming back with the traditional stripe - but a lot of them have only dusty white faces. We also seem to have a late flush of willowherb as well. Our fuscias are being worked and also have a white pollen.

[Emma]

On Saturday I was finally seeing a few of the classic white balsam marks. Also noticing that some of the face triangles look yellow, some look paler. So they've found both ivy and Himalayan balsam. Yes!!!

They are indeed lucky little cats, Kitta. I'm guiltily pleased to be so close to that particular Invasive Non-Native Species. A far cry from much of agricultural Aberdeenshire. Don't think they'd have done so well in my out-apiary last year, though they were getting a lot of ivy, quite late on, in Aberdeen itself.

There's a quite distinctive smell, too, which I also noticed from one of the city colonies last year. Odd, and a bit sour. Last year I indulged in a brief panic that it was some bee disease, but I rapidly concluded it was something they were foraging. I thought it was the propolis they were finding at that end of the year; I'm now wondering whether it's the smell of ivy honey. Maybe a comination of the two? Certainly wasn't disease: that colony have thrived relentlessly all year.

Emma

[Mellifera Crofter]

... There's a quite distinctive smell, too, which I also noticed from one of the city colonies last year. Odd, and a bit sour. Last year I indulged in a brief panic that it was some bee disease, but I rapidly concluded it was something they were foraging. I thought it was the propolis they were finding at that end of the year; I'm now wondering whether it's the smell of ivy honey. Maybe a comination of the two? Certainly wasn't disease: that colony have thrived relentlessly all year.

Emma, I wonder whether the smell you noticed might have come from ragwort? I've just been reading Ted Hooper's description of ragwort in 'Guide to Bees and Honey' (p.235). He said it has an 'offensive odour' but that the smell goes once it has granulated. Kirk and Howes in 'Plants for Bees' said it is called 'stinking Willie' in Scotland! There's always some ragwort growing around here, but I've not noticed a smell or heard it being called Stinking Willie.
Kitta

[The Drone Ranger]

http://www.historyhome.co.uk/people/cumber.htm
Stinking Billie himself

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thank you, DR - it's good to know the reasons for names!
Kitta