Guilfordbeekeepers.org

This morning I heard a loud buzz in the yard and discovered that my bees are working my pecan trees. The leaves have sticky stuff on their tops that I suppose is honeydew but I don't see any aphids. Have any of you seen bees working pecan leaves? This could be the cause of honey crystallizing in my supers last summer. Hope I don't have that happen again.

I googled this topic yesterday and found a national forum board with a 2005 discussion about this. The gist of it was that the bees did not get good nectar or pollen from the pecan trees but worked damaged portions of the tree (woodpecker) for a short while before the liquid solidified. Some of the contributors were serious pecan tree planters who said plant the trees for the nuts, not for the honey bees. It doesn't sound like what you are seeing would explain last year's problem.

Have two pecan trees in the back yard and have checked on them a few times during the day but have not seen any bees around them.