# Bees ignore garden offerings



## BackYardPhenomena (Jul 11, 2012)

I got bees for pollination if fruit trees and garden plants. After three years of experience my bees tend to ignore what is available in the yard and go elsewhere. I know the obvious is that there is something blooming that they prefer, but I've seen the same varieties in others' yards with bees overwhelming the flowers when mine are nearly vacant. Anyone else have his problem?


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

It's something that happens every year here.  I gave it a shot a couple years in a row, then did tons of reading on the subject. What i've come up with is it all has to do with, quality, quantity, and distance. Quality of nectar - % of sugar content, Quantity of blooms - How many plants you have in an area and number of blooms within, and Distance from the hives. 

There's some kind of complicated order that the bees go by, and it's all to do with what they feel is the most "BANG" for their effort. 
So for me at this point, I've chosen to plant only high nectar producing plants and plant very large areas of it as close as I can to my hives. By doing this I feel that i'm giving them plenty to work.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

I've seen my bees on my blackberries, apples, cantaloupe, watermelons and asparagus. Of those, I only have a 'lot' of blackberries, the others are just small plantings. I did plant 7 vitex negundo shrubs/small trees that are reportedly bee magnets, but all the bees I see on them are native bees, not honey bees.

Note that some vegetable garden plants are not pollinated by honeybees. For instance, tomatoes are not built right for honeybees to reach in, so 'buzz pollination' -sonication-) needs to happen, but honey bees do not know how to do sonication like bumblebees do.


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## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

Bees aren't always what we would call logical -- after all, they do have fairly tiny brains....

I suspect that there is something else going on with your lack of bees -- they tend to ignore very close sources over those more than 100 yards away or so. I suspect there is some evolutionary advantage, most likely not drawing predators directly to the hive, but I've seen it in my yard. Most of the bees around fly off to my neighbors, a quarter mile away, and I suspect mine visit her yard. They were busy hauling in gray pollen from her pussy willow while hers were not.

They will always concentrate on the highest sugar nectar and the largest source of pollen that is closest once you get out of the "exclusion zone" close to the hive, but what they are actually working can vary by the hour. My old neighbor had retired and spent a good deal of time watching my bees, more than I did, as he pointed out several times which hive was flying in what direction -- almost always different

And don't forget that bees won't work flowers that are not producing nectar or have attractive pollen, and that things like fruit trees tend to have nectar only for a couple days, and sometimes only for a few hours a day. The bees might be all over those trees at times you are not watching.

Peter


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

drlonzo said:


> I've chosen to plant only high nectar producing plants and plant very large areas of it as close as I can to my hives. By doing this I feel that i'm giving them plenty to work.


 This does not do much for growing fruits and vegetables for consumption. I think the OP is interested in growing lot's of quality vegetables in his garden, not feeding his bees.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Anyone else have his problem?

Everyone does. Don't let it discourage you from planting for bees, but keep in mind that it is unlikely you will make any impact on a honey crop by what you plant. You may, though, fill some gaps during hard times.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#planting


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## dudelt (Mar 18, 2013)

It always seems to me that if the flowers are too close to the hives, the bees want nothing to do with them. My bees almost have to fly through two cherry trees to go foraging. I don't believe I have ever seen one of them actually on the flowers of the trees. Behind the hives is a stand of blackberries roughly 50 X 50 feet always loaded with bumblebees but my girls hardly touch them. The only tree on my property I can confirm they love is the pussy willow in early spring. You can actually hear the tree buzzing with all the bees in it.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

everything I've read says bees have a hard time communicating short distances witch makes sense if you have ever studied up on waggle dances. Very short waggle dances don't seem to get the bees waited to be recruited very excited whereas long elaborate dances gain more attention. If you want bees to pollinate your trees in your yard close to your hive, put the hive in the hives as far away as you can on your property , or get some orchard bees or some other solitary bee.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

I kind of thought of it as psfred, don't draw attention to the hive by foraging close but what Harley says makes sense too.


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