Black pollen?

[Julie in Ash]

Please be gentle. Last week we were in the association apiary and we were going through a hive, watching bees come in with the eye-catching red chestnut pollen. The mentor said in a few weeks we will see bees coming in with black pollen. No one questioned it but it didn’t sound right to me. Is this the beekeeper equivalent of sending the rookie to the merchant for a tin of striped paint? Google isn’t being helpful. For info, we are in east Kent.

 

[Angularity]

Poppy? Red dead nettle?

 

[madasafish]

Please be gentle. Last week we were in the association apiary and we were going through a hive, watching bees come in with the eye-catching red chestnut pollen. The mentor said in a few weeks we will see bees coming in with black pollen. No one questioned it but it didn’t sound right to me. Is this the beekeeper equivalent of sending the rookie to the merchant for a tin of striped paint? Google isn’t being helpful. For info, we are in east Kent.

Opium/perennial poppy - see my poppy to the left.. avatar

I grow opium poppies annually - the single flowered ones drive bumbles and honey bees crazy. (I collect seeds in autumn if you want some)

 

[Julie in Ash]

Thank you for the explanation. That does make sense. It’s very hard being a student of anything in your fifties. Lol We certainly will have a lot of poppies round here before long. Just don’t remember seeing black pollen in the bees before.

Thanks for the offer, madasafish, but the wheat fields nearby are usually thick with them. People even take summer Sunday afternoon drives along the lanes just to see them.

 

[masterBK]

Not all poppy species have black pollen

 

[madasafish]

Not all poppy species have black pollen

Poppy yellow pollen and blue leaves

 

[Murox]

Found this pollen chart in my browsing - http://www.sheffieldbeekeepers.org.uk/tools/pollen-chart/

 

[Julie in Ash]

Found this pollen chart in my browsing - http://www.sheffieldbeekeepers.org.uk/tools/pollen-chart/

Really interesting, thanks!

 

[Poly Hive]

I will put up my usual warning that due to changes in the process of getting the colour from plant to screen or chart they cannot be totally accurate.

PH