what's everyone else in the south east seeing? looks like i'm done for a while.
I'm not sure, but here in East Ky the honeysuckle is just now blooming. I don't know what the flow consist of though.
Poplars and blackberries are about done here, white clover kickin. G
i'm really hoping they'll work sumac this year and that goldenrod is as good as it was last year.
Last year was my first but the goldenrod was massive here. sumac too. we had alot of rain throughout till the end of July. I got several acres of buckwheat just comin up so that should give em a boost as things dry up in earnest.
10framer
what about the palm trees the flow is still on here. not as much but still going
then ya know a second flow here around sept
jay
I'm not sure what all is still blooming, rain a couple of weeks ago knocked the hedge blooms. Sumac is about to open, and one beek told me yesterday that he had seen some popcorn, I haven't yet. So far pretty good here, that swarm that moved into an empty hive I had this spring, I got a half super of mediums and a shallow off them yesterday. I had some hives with 3 supers above the 2 for the brood chamber, and most were full of capped honey, some brood and some uncapped honey. Good luck to all
Joe
no palm trees up this way.
i've got some buckwheat that i planted about two weeks ago that's up.
sumac bloomed here last year but my bees didn't touch it. all kinds of solitary bees and other local pollinators but no honeybees.
it's funny, i get extremely light honey here that i'm sure a lot of people would want but i'd rather have the sumac and poplar any day.
joe, sumac won't open here until around august if it goes like last year. in town there is a different variety that looks like it's about to bloom. i'm going to get some seeds this year and plant it here this fall or start some in containers under lights this winter.
Very small percent of privet bloom left. Magnolia. strawberries, and Maypops (wild passion flower) are about the only bloom I see now. I put out some formulated sugar water in a 1 gallon chicken water thing and they were on it pretty good. I'd imagine in another week or two my squash will start blooming.
10framer, I planted some buckwheat about a week ago. How long before I can expect to see it come up? Does it reseed freely, or do you have to replant every year? And what kind of sumac are you guys talking about? My wife is from Connecticut and when we go to New England she points it out to me and calls it poison sumac, but I know there's all kinds of sumac, some of which is good sprinkled on ice cream (hope it isn't poison). I don't think we have sumac here in Texas, but not sure.
Quote from: Dallasbeek on May 30, 2014, 12:23:17 AM
10framer, I planted some buckwheat about a week ago. How long before I can expect to see it come up? Does it reseed freely, or do you have to replant every year? And what kind of sumac are you guys talking about? My wife is from Connecticut and when we go to New England she points it out to me and calls it poison sumac, but I know there's all kinds of sumac, some of which is good sprinkled on ice cream (hope it isn't poison). I don't think we have sumac here in Texas, but not sure.
I plant Buckwheat every year to cover ground until I am ready to plant perrenials in the fall. It will re seed itself but not as strongly as the original planting. Thats my experience with it. This will be my first year with bees up there, hope they like it. I will have 3-4 acres staggerred planting a couple weeks apart. I planted my first last friday and wed. my Father told me some was breaking the earth. I expect it will be up good tommorrow. G :chop:
buckwheat is a tricky thing evidently when it comes to honey bees. I have seeded it as a cover crop, but honestly I am not a huge buckwheat honey lover. I do like it ok though, and everyone loves the fruity honey better around here for the most part.
but here is a interesting discussion thread about it I found, they also have a few videos posted:
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=260 (http://www.honeybeeworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=260)
down here we have
Florida bee keeping management Calender
This gives a good idea of whats flowering in your area. Georgia has to have one too
you'll see
jay
dallas, mine was up in about 5 days. it came up in 3 or 4 days last year and was blooming at about 21 days if i remember right.
i'm with better to bee, i don't like the taste of it. i use it for ground cover (it controls weeds and improves soil) and hope that the bees work it during the long dearth we seem to have here.
i'll disc it under around mid july and plant milo for the wild life and erosion control.
Yep, it's about over here in North Florida too. We are still getting just a little bit from the Palmetto and Tallow but, its defiantly on the back side of the flow. Cabbage Palm won't start blooming good here until mid July
John,
I have a large palmetto bush in my back yard. It just started to open yesterday. It has lots of buds. I have not checked out at the farm yet but I was expecting it to be the same. I will check tomorrow. I do not actually have any palmetto bushes on the farm. The cows eat every one and will not let them grow at all. The forest is full of them since the eco's made the state stop letting the ranchers graze in the forest. They did not have to do controlled burns when the cattle ran the forest.
Jim
Thanks, 10framer. I guess I'll plant a second time. The first planting hasn't come up.
Gary
have you had any rain since you planted?
It's just a small patch that I irrigate as part of my drip irrigation system, but it has been drier than usual here -- well, I guess it's about normal for the past few years -- but maybe it hasn't gotten as much water as it needs. I'll step up the frequency of watering thst area. There's a large park near my house that's mostly wild -- wildflowers, wild animals, you name it. I wanted to try a test in my yard and then maybe put in about 10 pounds of buckwheat seed in the park area if I saw I could get it to grow here. I've read it reseeds pretty well in some places and kind of naturalizes. The lepidopterist society meets in this park almost every month that butterflies are active and birdwatchers frequent the place. We've seen coyotes, foxes, lots of raccoons and possoms and think there may be a bobcat there. Outdoor cats don't last too long in my neighborhood. One coyote wanders around our street in daylight as nonchalant as can be.
Buckwheat is pretty hardy, It doesnt take much to sprout. G
mine got rained on the day after i planted it and i'm not sure it's had any water since. sounds like maybe you got some bad seed.
I'll try sprouting some in a wet paper towel in a baggie. Works with most things.
Quote from: Dallasbeek on May 30, 2014, 07:52:24 PM
I'll try sprouting some in a wet paper towel in a baggie. Works with most things.
:evil: I wonder how many baggies and wet paper towels it would take to plant an acre of buckwheat ?
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
10Framer suggested exactly what I was thinking and Dallasbeek, you are planning exactly what I would do - test sprout.
I didn't get the "big garden" planted this spring so have considered putting the 1/3-1/2 acre into buckwheat. Might not happen as the farmer's co-op is reluctant to order seed. I believe they sold the last bag. I would have to either have it shipped or drive further then my old truck will safely go down into AL to get it. A full bag would have enough I could scatter the remaining seed along edges of the other fields.
BTW Jim,
The wet towel is only to be sure the seed WILL sprout. Brat!!
I checked the popcorn today, some don't have buds yet, some has buds in different stages, some will have flowers ready for the bees soon. I have squash blooming, have small squash on them now and tomatoes and peppers. Will have peas and okra will be blooming in a little.
Joe
Funny, Jim. Somebody in a personal msg. Suggested I might have planted them too deep and said they want to be about 1/4 inch. No doubt that was correct. I guess we're off topic, so i'll clam up about buckwheat. Thanks for the suggestions, though.
Gary
I prepared a seedbed using the rotary tiller about 18'x250' and just cranked the buckwheat seed out of an old hand spreader one day when the sky got really dark and it looked like it was about to rain.. Well it didn't rain that day and so the doves and crows started getting at my buckwheat seeds! So I then lightly LIGHTLY disked it under. I drove the little tractor quickly and floated the disks to where they were maybe 4 inches down. Now I have a huge swath of buckwheat coming up!
If it hadn't been for the doves and the crows, I have had success just letting the rain "plant" the buckwheat for me.
Joe; Do they work the squash and okra pretty good for pollen? I also have peas, peppers, and corn. I don't think h.bees work tomatoes.
Bumble bees work tomatoes like crazy, but they are able to shake the blossom. That gets some pollen for them and pollnates the tomato. There are probably videos of that. But that doesn't benefit us beekeepers. Honeybees should work peas and peppers, I think. Squash blossoms are probably too deep. Don't know about flowers on okra. I'll wait for somebody that knows about these things, cause I put in a few okra plants this year.
Gary
I've seen honeybees working squash flowers without a problem.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I just check the Palmetto and Popcorn plants yesterday. Both are in full bloom I the Osceola national forest area.
Jim
Do peppers and peas have much nectar? I can see they might have enough pollen, but havedoubts about nectar. Nice to know squash get worked. How about okra, sawdstmakr?
Gary
I've seen honeybees work in okra flowers--but not a lot of them. Usually there are the big bumbles and some natives that like to work the okra. Now when it comes to peas and beans, honey bees DO like those. As for the nectar content of peas and beans, not sure. You'd probably have to have acres and acres of peas/beans if you want to get a honey crop off of them.. and a great excuse to plant a ton of them is for a food plot for deer, dove, etc.. :-D
But as a rule of thumb: bees love legumes. And you'd be surprised at the legumes out there.. Peas, beans, wisteria, red bud trees, clover, alfalfa, soybeans, lentils, and the list goes on...
well, i may have called it a bit early. i found some black gums(i think) blooming and i think it's time for persimmon to come in. the bees were working a little yesterday after a couple of days of sitting around the hives.
soybeans are supposed to be a decent nectar plant from what i understand. i plant 50 pounds of iron clay peas every year but the deer usually get them before they bloom.
Quote from: Dallasbeek on June 01, 2014, 09:06:11 AM
Do peppers and peas have much nectar? I can see they might have enough pollen, but havedoubts about nectar. Nice to know squash get worked. How about okra, sawdstmakr?
Gary
I do not have any Ocra to check it out. As far as nectar amounts, our 2 largest nectar producers are gallberry and palmetto. Both flowers are very small. Around a quarter of an inch. Each plant produces thousands.
Jim
My bees love to work squash and watermelon. This is my first year for okra, I hope they like it also. My squash is looking real good this year, already blooming.
I've heard some of the folks say bees can work cotton up till the goldenrod starts. Looking at the blooms okra favors cotton a lot. It too will bloom to frost if you keep the pods cut off.
Bees do work squash. For several years I leased my bees to a squash farmer that grew about 300 acres per year. They don't get much from squash cause my bees almost starved to death while pollinating them.
A small patch of okra will work a man to death trying to keep it cut but he can make some money.
Steve
Quote from: Dallasbeek on May 31, 2014, 12:40:09 AM
Funny, Jim. Somebody in a personal msg. Suggested I might have planted them too deep and said they want to be about 1/4 inch. No doubt that was correct. I guess we're off topic, so i'll clam up about buckwheat. Thanks for the suggestions, though.
Gary
I have always heard that 1/4" About perennials like clover and alfalfa, I plant my buckwheat with an old corn planter, plants 3-4 inches deep, havent had any problem, Dad says it coming up good, I will check on it tommorrow evening and plant another acre or so. G
(http://s29.postimg.org/681obzi4j/DSC04572.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/681obzi4j/)