seeds ?

[jimmy]

This question has probably been asked before but, here it is again from me.
I have been trying to buy some sunflower seeds for my bees . I have asked several local farm supply stores . I believe bees need open pollinated flowers for the nectar.

Anyone care to share your advise? If you know a distributor  of small amounts please share.

[doak]

Your local Wally World should have some in the garden center .doak

[bassman1977]

Check burpee.com

As far as Sunflowers go, Wikipedia has it listed as a minor source for nectar.  I'm not sure how significant of a pollen source sunflowers are, but my thinking would be significant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Nectar_Sources_for_Honey_Bees

[MrILoveTheAnts]

I'm trying a variety of sunflowers out this year. Mammoth, Skyscraper, a perennial sunflower that grows more like a daisy, some type of red variety, and Mexican Sunflowers (aka torch,) and maybe another I've forgotten. I've chosen these because I'm getting a good variety in height. The tallest supposidly gets to be 16 feet tall while, 12 to 8 feet and at the smallest ones are 4 to 6.
As far as Wikipedia goes, I don't know how they measure what is a minor or major source. I suppose they are a minor source because I've only ever seen 1 honey bee per flower where as other bees will work them together, but it's a reasonable constant flow of bees. The Mexican Sunflowers and Perennial one I'm using will grow hundreds of tiny sunflowers. Perhaps the more brilliant display will attract more bees. A big beefy sunflower might seem intimidating to honey bees which prefer small manageable flowers, where as bumblebees tend to not care and crawl right in the most complicated labyrinth of petal structures.

I don't know if you're asking about buying seeds by the truck load but local Home Depot's and Lowes Hardwar stores have all sorts of varieties of sunflowers. (though the Perennial one I had to buy especially online.) 

Another thought is Pet food stores. They usually sell loads of sunflower bags but I wouldn't know what type they normally use.

The smaller Teddy Bare sunflower I have never seen a bee on EVER. The ones that are more fluffy and you can't see the seeds inside. 

[beekybuzzard]

I just planted 100 pounds of black oil sunflower seeds last Saturday. I just went to tractor supply and got the ones they sell for bird feed. I now have about an acre and a half of sunflowers that are already up and going. Pretty cheap for the seeds in the 50 pound bags rather than buying seed packets.

[asprince]

Did you plant them just for your bees or are you going to shoot birds over them?

Steve

[jimmy]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. While talking to a neighbor down the road he asked , how many you need? I said I only wanted to plant a 100 ft. row . He went in the barn an brought out a paper sack full. Asked if I thought that would be enough ? I replied think so.