Are hops a source of pollen for bees

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sashurlow

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I have hops and I have bees. I have not ever heard if hops are source of pollen for bees. Hops are just female plants so the bee is not going to help the plant out as there is no male to fertilize, but do hops produce enough pollen to be useful to the bees? I have Googled this and have not found an answer. Has anyone figured this one out?
Scott
 
The boy hops certainly do produce pollen, lots of it, but the bees don't really seem interested. Maybe because there's no sweet nectar in hops. Hops are wind pollinated by the way.
 
"Pollen" is a boy thing.
So, unless you have male hop plants, you're not going to see any hop pollen.
And, in my experience over the last 5+ years, bees will be utterly disinterested in the female flowers...

Cheers!
 
Duh... Pollen is the male flower. I guess I'm thinking of most flowers that have both.
Good to know that they will not benefit the bees.
 
I found that connection too. Unfortunately the wife won't let me turn my hops into home made varroa mite control.
 
I have two additional male plants this year so I was paying a little closer attention to them recently and happened to notice quite a few bees working the flowers. They tended to hover more like a sweat bee and were about 1/3 the size of honey bees. There are 3 little leaves coming out of the stem of this flower. Just between and below the middle and right leaves is the bee I caught today with his head facing down and with a shiny greenish abdomen.

rex bee 2016.jpg
 
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