# Calculating number of flowers needed for a hive?



## hagane (Aug 15, 2015)

So I wondered if there's research out there on how much of a flower type, and for each type and how to convert or calculate how much nectar that can make per hive?

I'm not sure if there's a term for this already or not.

Today I was out in the garden, and honey bees going to town this morning on the sunflowers. (SW area, Utah) But I might not have planted my sunflowers at the same time others do.

I wonder how much nectar you can get on something like sunflowers, and other things potentially.


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## dudelt (Mar 18, 2013)

Wikipedia has a listing of how much honey you can get per acre for numerous plants. Use any search engine and type in "honey per acre for sunflowers" or what ever plant you are thinking about. I have no idea how accurate it is but there are some references noted that you can follow up with.


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

Keep in mind, that when you google honey yield per acre, it gives you the total, not the net surplus. Depending on how drawn out the flow is, some to all may be used for brood production. 

I.e. When it says 60 lb/acre honey produced, that is what the bees bring back to the hive. Not what they put away in the supers.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Here (Iliyazov, 2015)
https://www.researchgate.net/public..._mellifera_L_of_the_Republic_of_Bashkortostan

They dedicated entire chapter (Chapter 2, pg. 36) to estimation methodology of the honey bee forage at a given location.
If you care, you can Google translate and study it.
The ideas are general enough to apply elsewhere.

I am yet to find a similar information from English source; maybe I am not looking well enough.

Again, you the local beekeeper must know your local bee foraging situation the best (if not yet - then scout and study it).


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