# Planting for honey



## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

I am thrilled that one of my TB hives made it through the winter and I have plans to restock the other. They are set up at our 14 acre wildlife area but there doesn't seem to be enough native plants to get the stores built up to sustain them. I fed sugar water all fall until it got cold and then fed sugar bricks through the winter. We also had a lot of rain last summer, NW IA, and that could have contributed to the lack of pollen. I want to tear up a good chunk of ground over there and plant for the bees, but what? Clover? Wild flower mix? Some of each? I will appreciate any and all suggestions.


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## LKBruns (Jul 12, 2014)

I read on the internet that Shrubs generally produce more forage for bees than herbaceous plants, and trees more than any. I cannot find the article again but I recently read that a couple of trees can produce more nectar than an acre of flowers (wildflower seeds are also expensive and we have had a hard time getting a stand of wild flowers established.

So I've been planting guajillo, bee brush (white brush), Texas Kidneywood, and mesquite. I'm in South Texas.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

Even 14 acres planted wall-to-wall with bee forage plants won't be a really big improvement, as the bees will forage over more than 10,000 acres. And wall-to-wall bee plants are not really compatible with a wildlife area, it's just another form of multiplant monoculture.

I'd go for trees and shrubs and enhancing the hedegrow areas. In IA, your main issue is the monoculture of the crop plants (corn and beans) and the loss of hedgerows to service the huge machines.

It takes considerable, and permanently sustained, effort to establish bee-meadows. The easiest way is to burn down the existing plants with herbicide. Is that what you want to do?

Enj.


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

We do have several plum thickets and apple trees but they, of course, are only blooming in the spring. My FIL planted thousands of trees and bushes over there, I would think it is utopia but for 2 years in a row there didn't seem to be forage for them. I'm hoping a patch of clover or something like that would fill in the cracks. Yes, I'm going to mow the existing grass and we will spray it before seeding.


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## LKBruns (Jul 12, 2014)

careful with spraying ... Some herbicides leave up to a 6 month residual in the soil. Anything you plant may sprout and then slowly die.

I would disc it heavy to kill out any grass. Then redisc every couple months as new grass emerges. If you do this until the fall when it is time to plant clover you should be in good shape. (At least in my region we plant clover in October)


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## dudelt (Mar 18, 2013)

Take a look in the Garden/Planting for Bees forum for lots of ideas on what to plant. I have personally given up on planting seeds and will only plant trees. I have spent hundreds of dollars in seeds and maybe gotten 75 cents worth of honey from it over numerous years. Trees give me a semi-permanent plant, shade, food for wildlife including bees, oxygen, beautiful flowers and firewood. Seeds give me the need to keep replanting, tilling, watering, fuel for brush fires and basically, more work than I want or need. I will admit that summer weather here is very different than where you live.


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## Cyan (Jan 27, 2015)

I tried planting different things around my hives last year and the year previous. But what I've found is right in line what enjambres has said; it just doesn't make as much of an impact as you would hope it would.

However, the Asters I planted did bring a whole slew of native pollinators around, many of which I have never seen up close before.


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

My husband is a farmer so he knows about herbicide residue, we are going to use Roundup as a knockdown because it does not have carry over. Discing does not kill the brome already there, we will spray it, then drill right into the dead grass as our best chance of getting a good stand.

I'm really interested in what people are planting, not how they are planting.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

Well, based on my own experience, and the reports of others is that the preferred _what_ to plant for bees is trees and shrubs, not forbs. The effort and cost vs success and benefit ratio is hugely skewed towards trees. 

I mess a bit with planting extra early things like masses (as in thousands of bulbs at a time) of species crocus and other early bulbs for early forage. And I have started stands of specific perennial plants like Joe Pye weed, or wingstem, or as noted above, asters along the edges of fields, rather than large swathes of things like buckwheat or clover which require annual effort. I especially shy away from the mixes of bee-meadow flowering plants that are advertised so widely. These, IMO offer the highest cost in terms of cash outlay and effort to get started and the least payback in terms of forage. 

In my "real", non-bee, life I am a professional horticulturist so starting plants from seeds or cuttings, is easy for me. But I still prefer trees for my beekeeper-assisted bee chow plans.

Good luck!

Enj.


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## Setternut (Jul 9, 2015)

I have a small farm that I bought a couple years ago. The crop fields had been cash rented by the previous owner and were not well cared for. I am going to be planted cover crops in several of the fields. This spring I will be planting about 4 acres of Buckwheat. It will be some help for the bees but it will also make more phosphorus available for my next crop. I will also be planting white Dutch clover in several areas, it will be good for the bees but also good quail brood habitat. I have also planted a 3 acre pollinator plot, in the eqip program. Wildflower seed is pretty pricey, that 3 acres worth of seed was almost $400.

I have two hives of bees, but my main focus is quail habitat. I really enjoy bird dogs.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

Plant 14 acres of bee bee trees LOL they bloom late summer 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetradium


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

Well, from the gist of responses, our wildlife area should have enough to sustain my hives! Most of you talk about planting trees, as I said, my FIL planted thousands over there but I didn't think they would be a good source of pollen? Last summer was also a very rainy summer and I know they don't forage well in the rain. I think we will still tear up a patch and seed it to clover, here it is a perennial crop so once it's established, it will be good to go. Wish me luck!


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## Jon Wolff (Apr 28, 2013)

I have a lot of photinia bushes (red tips) and the bees are crazy about them, but they have a virus and I'm gradually losing them. There may be a virus-resistant cultivar now, but I haven't looked into it. After some research, I decided on the chaste tree. I read that they are long-blooming and the bees love them, but after planting five of the Vitex agnus-castus variety, the one most commonly found, I discovered that, although plenty of other pollinators love it, honeybees prefer a different variety, Vitex negundo. The honeybees like my redbuds, but they have to compete with native bees, which literally swarm the trees when they blossom.


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## mailmam (May 8, 2014)

I do need trees that are hardy to zone 3 or 4, preferably 3. It is funny, my hives are right in the midst of a wild plum thicket but when they were blooming, I didn't see many bees in it, I thought it would be alive with them. Go figure.


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## Tim KS (May 9, 2014)

mailmam said:


> Well, from the gist of responses, our wildlife area should have enough to sustain my hives! Most of you talk about planting trees, as I said, my FIL planted thousands over there but I didn't think they would be a good source of pollen? Last summer was also a very rainy summer and I know they don't forage well in the rain. I think we will still tear up a patch and seed it to clover, here it is a perennial crop so once it's established, it will be good to go. Wish me luck!


I planted a clover mix here last fall and got a good thick stand on 4-5 acres. It's greening & growing now so by this summer I can let you know the bees like it. We have some yellow clover that grows (spotty) in the road ditches and the bees seem to love it. I planted a mix of 4 different kinds that have various bloom times, so forage will be available longer. Good luck with your clover. I don't think you'll be disappointed by adding another forage source for the girls.


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