I have started planting for my bees; wild flowers, clover, buckwheat and garden vegetables. Have natural (wild blackberry) throughout the property. Established grape vines, blueberry vine and assortment of herbs.
Will this aid in feeding my new hive of bees, will they consume less sugar water with natural resources? What else can I provide for them as food that's natural?
Charles
I guess I will say it first.
Unless you plan on planting 100's of acres a flower bed means very little to your bees. Not saying that when I select plants I don't think of my bees when choosing varieties but in reality it means very little to them. But it is refreshing to see bees I assume are my own on my flowers. My advice would be plant what you like the bees will make due. The bees will consume sugar water until a better source comes into bloom. Best advice I would give is a water source close to the hives.
Keith
Charles,
Normally I would say to ignore anything a flyers fan has to say, but Keith is correct. Of course anything that you plant will help and as Keith says it is fun to see your own girls at your flowers. I myself try to plant early flowering trees and plants close to the hive so that they have an early foraging option in the spring. See what does best in your area. I like cherry(especially because you get to eat them too). I also like magnolia and lilac but I'm not sure how much the bees like those trees.
Anyway have fun planting.
GO WINGS!!!!!!!!!
Lee
(p.s. sorry about hijacking the conversation for hockey jabs, but can't help myself)
Honey bees will tap about two million flowers and fly 50000 miles to make one pound of honey.
Like others have said. Millions of flowers are needed.
I do plant for my bees. Actually, I plant for myself and I choose plants that bees seems to work.
This will be my last post now that I know there is a Flyers fan here.
Boston Bruins vs Philadelphia Flyers.
Guess who the Massachusetts guy is rooting for!
Black and Gold
I forbid my grandchildren to pick any kind of flower at my place regardless if benificial or weed without getting spefic permission as to which flowers. I tell them the bees need to eat too and picking flowers steals their food. As I look out the window I see the orchard carpeted with dandilions and the bees are loving it. Of course as they head up to seed I'll turn the sheep into graze.
Hey- every little bit counts said the mouse as she peed in the ocean.
Planting for the bees is not at all a bad idea. An acre of alsike clover is supposed to yield 100 or more pounds of honey so if you've got just a hive or two you can certainly make a difference with an acre of land. Many garden plants bloom earlier or later in the season than your native species, not knowing whats in wait. A lawn full of Scilla in the spring should provide a good early pollen source for your bees even before the willows are in bloom. For those living in the states I read someplace you can get grant monies to plant bee pastures in soil conservation set aside areas. In experiments with such pastures they've found that bees provided with 10% bee pasture (based on a 3 km radius forage area) collect about 80% of their pollen from the pasture. Sure, 10% of 28 square km is a lot of ground but nonetheless. A good bee pasture can keep your bees out of systemic insecticide ridden corn fields.
Just make sure you understand that your bees will not just work the flowers on your land. They will be foraging a 2 mile radius which is 8,000 acres. It's difficult, unless you own that 8,000 acres, to plant enough to make a crop. But it's not hard to plant things that will fill out the year for the bees. The times of need in the hives is early (February to April), late (September to the killing frost) and during drought (which is usually mid summer around here and requires plants that will bloom when there is little rain). So I would focus on plants to fill those gaps. A variety of honey plants in general will tend to fill more gaps than focusing on only one or two plants. It certainly doesn't hurt to plant some sweet clover (both yellow and white as they bloom at different times) and some white Dutch clover and some birdsfoot trefoil and some borage and some anise hyssop and some tulip poplars and some black locust, but these don't tend to fill those early and late gaps, but do tend to make some honey and MAY fill a gap. Early plants that provide pollen are red maples, bleep willows, elms, crocuses, redbud, wild plums, choke cherries and other fruit trees. Dandelions are always good to have around. You can pick the dried heads from people whose lawns are full of them. Just pluck them and put them in a grocery sack and take them home and scatter them. Chicory and goldenrod often bloom in a drought and will bloom usually from about July until a killing frost. Asters are a good late blooming plant. The main thing to keep in mind, though, is that you're just trying to fill the gaps, not trying to create a crop.
"Just make sure you understand that your bees will not just work the flowers on your land."
One of the reasons we are doing this is for the exceptional gardening benefits. It's rare to see a honey bee in our garden..although they do frequent the pond daily. On occasion we see honey bees at gardening centers in mass close to our home. We have no idea if they are ours...however we never noticed them in gardening centers before we kept bees. Could be that we were too distracted to notice.
In the end we find great pleasure in this one true thought.
Due to our care there are more honey bees then there were before we cared for them.
If I never draw a drop of honey from them I'm content with that thought.
Best,
Sarita