I was wondering today if my bees are finding much nectar (it seems like a lot of the summer flowers have lost their bloom) but I see a lot of full pollen sacks on the girls coming home... Can I infer that if they are finding pollen then they are finding nectar too?
NO. They can many times find pollen when there is no nectar. The only way to tell is by the weight of thehive increasing, or looking inside.
A good example is Bahia grass where I am at. They will fill their legs with it. It has very little nutritional value and zero nectar.
Checking hives earlier this summer I found one of my hives with very little added honey, but with unusually large amounts of pollen-filled cells. Couldn't figure out what had happened till I discovered a large field of sunflowers about 300 yards from the hive. My conclusion was (no guaranteeing that I'm correct) that sunflowers don't produce much nectar.
I have no complaints about the pollen stocks--come spring the bees will use it all on raising new brood. :thumbsup:
