Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Zamboy13 on April 10, 2011, 02:55:40 am

Title: Different colors of pollen
Post by: Zamboy13 on April 10, 2011, 02:55:40 am
I just realized that bees bring in pollen with different colors. Some are bright orange while others are bright to pale yellow. Some other pollen are brownish while others are almost white in color- very light cream color.

What do you think is the best kind of pollen in terms of color? Is it the orange pollen or the yellow pollen? Also is there even a way to determine what plants or trees the bees have foraged based on the color of pollen that they bring into the hive?

Observing honeybees do their "hive chores" really is very interesting!
Title: Re: Different colors of pollen
Post by: gaucho10 on April 10, 2011, 03:14:58 am
Sometimes bees bring in other things beside pollen.  It could be chemicals, sawdust, etc...
The best way to find out what your bees are bringing in is to know what is in bloom in your area at that time of year.  All pollen is good...all chemicals is not good...
Title: Re: Different colors of pollen
Post by: DaveKow on April 10, 2011, 06:09:13 am
http://www.answers.com/topic/pollen-source (http://www.answers.com/topic/pollen-source)
Title: Re: Different colors of pollen
Post by: Zamboy13 on April 10, 2011, 09:57:25 am
Thank you both for your input. I appreciate it a lot. Dave Kow, the link you provided was very informative; however, I don't think all those trees and plants are present here in my side of the world.

It's interesting to know that its possible to have blue colored pollen although I don't think there is Siberian squill here in the Philippines but it would be nice though to see bees bring in blue pollen.

I'm an urban beekeeper (my hive is placed at the back porch of our house) so I guess my bees are foraging from the plants and trees of our neighbors since I don't have any plants at all in my house. The common trees that I know of which are present here in my neighborhood are different varieties of mango trees, coconut, acacia trees, papaya trees, guava trees, several variety of garden and wild flowers which I have no idea what the names are (except for roses, chrysanthemum, Malaysian mums and bougainvillea), and some other trees which I do not know the names as well. Sorry, I'm bad at botany.