Do honey bees like peach trees? I can find nothing on it
If you're asking if honey bees like peach trees because you want to see your peach trees pollinated, it's my understanding that mason bees are better pollinators of stone fruit of all kinds. But mason bees don't make honey and don't travel very far.
The bees work my peach blooms. I have seen them on the blooms. Not like I see and hear them on my crab apple tree but my peach trees are all pretty small yet. Last year was a hard freeze mid bloom and so there was not much to work but I did see it with my own eyes.
Cheers
gww
The benefit of having bees in your back yard is bees will hit your fruit trees. Maybe they are the bees in training so they don't go out so far. If you have fruit trees and no bees and then you put a hive in your back yard you will see a difference and it is not subjective it makes a difference. We have apples, peaches, plumbs and cherries. We buy blue berries and strawberries.
I hope they work it but is it a nectar source? My whole goal is to dilute the clover honey in my spring honey. The cherry trees are fixing to bloom out also.
bwallace; Why do you want to dilute the clover honey? Here clover is the prized spring nectar flow.
Don't really like the taste
Peach, prunus persica, is listed here as a honey plant;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honey_plants
I don't know how much peach nectar it would take to 'dilute' the clover. But isn't it more seasonal than anything? In my neck o the woods, peach blossoms much earlier than clover, so my local peach nectar would be in even before I put honey supers on.
Quote from: Hops Brewster on February 23, 2018, 11:26:39 AM
Peach, prunus persica, is listed here as a honey plant;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honey_plants
I don't know how much peach nectar it would take to 'dilute' the clover. But isn't it more seasonal than anything? In my neck o the woods, peach blossoms much earlier than clover, so my local peach nectar would be in even before I put honey supers on.
My peach tree has not quite opened up yet and the clover by the roadside has in spots and is coming up in the field. I have now seen my bees on my plums and now my blueberries. Have not seem them on my pears and my apples trees have not opened up but they are young so probably not a lot of blooms.
I also assume they have been on other things. Seen them on henbit once also.
Pellett's book "American Honey Plants" lists peach trees as a nectar source, but states that in most areas the bloom comes before most colonies are strong enough to make surplus. The nectar is mainly used for producing brood.
bw
I am new and don't know from experiance but the only guys that get any tree nectors are the ones who feed early with purpose to get it. For the rest of us, the trees are usually blooming at a time when the hives are building populations for the main flow and used on raising brood with no excess.
Cheers
gww
Ps AR.... types faster then me but I posted anyway.
No problem. Well sadly I might get a big ole crop of mainly clover honey. Better than no honey.Next year I might just feed hard for this very reason.
or move them to a different nectar source, if ya can.
Wish I could but do not know how. I might do a split soon and move the new hive near to the woods a half mile away to see what that does.
You could plant a little spring Buckwheat crop if you have any grass lands not being used for other purposes. Mowing a quarter or a half acre close and broadcasting the seed usually will give a stand of plants sufficient to produce enough nectar to noticeably change the color of clover honey. It depends on the number of colonies collecting the nectar.
Quote from: AR Beekeeper on February 23, 2018, 12:06:52 PM
You could plant a little spring Buckwheat crop if you have any grass lands not being used for other purposes. Mowing a quarter or a half acre close and broadcasting the seed usually will give a stand of plants sufficient to produce enough nectar to noticeably change the color of clover honey. It depends on the number of colonies collecting the nectar.
I am experimenting with buckwheat right now as a green mulch in a spot of poor soil. If it goes ever well I will do more in my current crop rotation plans.
[attachment=0][/attachment]
Honey bee on my plum tree
I have been trouble getting an Italian prune pollinated. My yellow plum and grandma?s plum get so much fruit they break if not thinned and the largest tree of them all is the Italian, second only to my big red. The last two I get about 2 dozen between them. I think it is because the cherry blooms at the same time. I must have 5-10 hives here all year, you would think somebody would hit them enough to get fruit?
I was going to graft a parsons to them but the cost of fruit trees here is at $10 so maybe just plant another tree?
Cut the heck out of that plumb tree. Make like a samurai warrior.
I have plum tree and peach tree blooming at the same time right now. My bees prefer the
peach blossoms over the plum. As for early nectar source I'm sure they are if you have several
100 acres of them blooming at the same time. Other than that my bees like the wild mustard over
the peach tree.
Quote from: Acebird on February 23, 2018, 08:41:34 PM
Cut the heck out of that plumb tree. Make like a samurai warrior.
It needs it. It is in bad shape as it was my first go at planting trees. My newer trees will be in better shape I promise
Let the bees have the nectar and then whack them.
[attachment=0][/attachment]
Honeybee on the peach tree. Question answered
I see very little if anything from peaches. Maybe they are a secondary source when other things are in bloom. If peaches were of bee value I would be living at the end of the rainbow. As it is peaches don't need bees for pollination and I personally think this makes the average peach farmer not very bee friendly. I do know what bees do get from peaches.... on a schedule of about every two weeks from what I have been told.
(http://i65.tinypic.com/rwmgis.jpg)
(http://i64.tinypic.com/vqpdoz.jpg)
Will those trees bear that much fruit, or will they have to be thinned at some point? Beaufiful orchard.
Dallas I have several long time friends that have commercial peach orchards. These trees may need thinning. Thinning in peaches means taking a padded broom handle and tapping the limbs of the tree after the tree has set peaches. There are rules of thumb governing how many peaches on so many inches of limb. If left alone frost may thin some of the blooms and sometimes late frost causes disaster to strike and all the peaches are killed by frost. The tree remains healthy but no peaches to sell. Thinning is an art.
Neighbor almost a mile away has a few peach trees. The past two years I have gotten a super or two of peach blossom honey. Easy to separate the peach from regular honey as the smell of peaches come through even before uncapping. For some reason only one hive has made the peach honey while the hives right next to it doesn't make any.
I saw a couple of bees on my peach tree just now. I need to go do an inspection again of my bees to see how much they are packing in right now. The clover is starting to bloom and I need to put a super on I bet. Perhaps Monday as it is supposed to rain tomorrow.
Quote from: harlowr on February 28, 2018, 02:50:47 PM
Neighbor almost a mile away has a few peach trees. The past two years I have gotten a super or two of peach blossom honey. Easy to separate the peach from regular honey as the smell of peaches come through even before uncapping. For some reason only one hive has made the peach honey while the hives right next to it doesn't make any.
You see the peaches where I live.... if the peache blossoms produced nectar to gather I would be covered up with peach blossom honey. I would say maybe your neighbors variety but the farmers here plant several varieties of clings and free stones to stagger harvest. And a couple neighbors trees would not effect your honey. It takes tons of blooms to have an effect on honey crop.
Quote from: Dallasbeek on February 28, 2018, 12:23:27 AM
Will those trees bear that much fruit, or will they have to be thinned at some point? Beaufiful orchard.
After they set fruit they will thin them with a plastic baseball bat or by hand. If not the fruit will be smaller and also it will break the trees down with weight. I will try to remember too look out for pictures during thinning.
So I do not get nectar from peaches but no one has mentioned what I do get.... has no one noticed the SPRAYER in the middle of the field?