# brain hurts from too much input!



## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

gunho23 said:


> The past three or four days I've been cramming for upcoming spring and my first bee hive...so much cramming that the wife is getting upset.
> 
> My plans are to till up my yard and reseed it with new grass and several different types of flowers. What I'm wondering is if I reseed by mid March to early April, will my new flowers have time to help my new hive at all?
> 
> I'm still working on the list, but so far I would like to plant three different types of Echium, white and possibly red clover, and sunflowers.




Unless you have 500 acres you can forget about planting for bees. Yes every little bit helps but the effort required will produce such a minimal return you might as well forget it.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

If you are planning to get rid of your lawn and put in flowers for bees, go for it. It will give you immense satisfaction seeing the bees working on the blossoms. I would seed heavily with white dutch clover, you can cut it if the wife gets tired of the unkept look and it will still send up new blooms all season, does need some water now and then though to really do well. John


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## DJS (May 7, 2012)

You dont have to replant just let the henbit take over like it has in my yard. The bees seem to work when it is blooming.


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## gunho23 (Jan 12, 2013)

Thanks for the input. 

I wouldn't reseed except my yard is full of weeds that don't flower and grow 5 feet tall. I want to plant new grass and thought I might as well throw something in the mix for the bees.

Ball clover and white clover mixed with some grass seed is what I'm looking at now.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

gunho23, you can't go wrong with white lawn clover, its one of the better honey plants there is, like I said it does need some water or it will burn up if you have hot dry weather for too long. Not too many really good honey plants that like it very dry, don't know what your summers are like down there, but I know yellow and white sweet clover can handle alot of dryness but they get 5 feet tall and don't bloom till second year, then die. John


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## gunho23 (Jan 12, 2013)

jmgi said:


> gunho23, you can't go wrong with white lawn clover, its one of the better honey plants there is, like I said it does need some water or it will burn up if you have hot dry weather for too long. Not too many really good honey plants that like it very dry, don't know what your summers are like down there, but I know yellow and white sweet clover can handle alot of dryness but they get 5 feet tall and don't bloom till second year, then die. John


Thanks for the info.

Our summers are usually between 90-110 degrees late June through late August, high humidity, very little rain....last summer we had no rain...bad drought and we are on a well system so I can't water a whole lot without running out of water.

I agree with your point on white clover, and unfortunately it does not bloom year one....that is why I am contemplating mixing the seed with ball clover as it looks like white clover and blooms the first year, but is only an annual.

Eric


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## Slow Modem (Oct 6, 2011)

Here is a handy link. Find your location, put in a 2-mile radius, and then you can see where your bees will be foraging.

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm


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## gunho23 (Jan 12, 2013)

Slow Modem said:


> Here is a handy link. Find your location, put in a 2-mile radius, and then you can see where your bees will be foraging.
> 
> http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm


That's awesome! Thank you very much.

Apparently the bees will have a good area of a major river to cover, the only downside is that within the last few years Walmart moved nearby and other stores followed. This area used to be completely rural.

I'm kind of worried about pesticides Walmart may use on their plants.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

My bees forage home depot's nursery and they've done ok. Seriously, with nothing around me but dead brown bermuda grass and dallis grass, I plant for the bees, except for my small front yard of st-augustine (I watered my oak and vitex, the grass happened to live) and my burnt up bermuda back yard.. 

I ordered from Stock Seed and got Crimson clover seed for about $4 a pound, I refrigerate what I don't use, use it as a border around the garden and the bee lot, it bloomed first year, I had a lb, probably have a 15 year supply. I use a fairly high end Texas wildflower mix, paid $30 retail for 2 lbs about 7 years ago, but I'm still planting from it. Left side of my crisper is obviously full of seeds. I planted vitex and rose of sharon bushes this fall, to go with what I already have. Rose of sharon isn't the bees favorite (vitex is) but in my part of the world, they like rose of sharon just fine. They love the wildflowers, I have a eunomys shrub with some good smelling blooms, a big china berry tree, a huge elm that should start blooming soon, cherry laurel, and a lot of abelia bushes that are pretty popular, blackberries, grapes and my normal veggie garden. For 1/3 of an acre surrounded by range land, I have a virtual garden of eden for bees and hummingbirds and other things that like flowers. And my ponds provide water, and water lily and bog plant blooms to work.. 

Now is the time to buy shrubs. Any nursery with any left starts dumping them on sale just before a freeze. I have a small greenhouse full from the Lowes pre-freeze dump, got about $200 in plants for $40. Those aren't dormant so I will hold there til spring. 

What bees do NOT like: Turks Cap. It's red, hummingbirds love it, bees could care less. They aren't wild about lantana, and my roses are somewhat neglected.


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## gunho23 (Jan 12, 2013)

Gypsi said:


> My bees forage home depot's nursery and they've done ok. Seriously, with nothing around me but dead brown bermuda grass and dallis grass, I plant for the bees, except for my small front yard of st-augustine (I watered my oak and vitex, the grass happened to live) and my burnt up bermuda back yard..
> 
> I ordered from Stock Seed and got Crimson clover seed for about $4 a pound, I refrigerate what I don't use, use it as a border around the garden and the bee lot, it bloomed first year, I had a lb, probably have a 15 year supply. I use a fairly high end Texas wildflower mix, paid $30 retail for 2 lbs about 7 years ago, but I'm still planting from it. Left side of my crisper is obviously full of seeds. I planted vitex and rose of sharon bushes this fall, to go with what I already have. Rose of sharon isn't the bees favorite (vitex is) but in my part of the world, they like rose of sharon just fine. They love the wildflowers, I have a eunomys shrub with some good smelling blooms, a big china berry tree, a huge elm that should start blooming soon, cherry laurel, and a lot of abelia bushes that are pretty popular, blackberries, grapes and my normal veggie garden. For 1/3 of an acre surrounded by range land, I have a virtual garden of eden for bees and hummingbirds and other things that like flowers. And my ponds provide water, and water lily and bog plant blooms to work..
> 
> ...


Very nice, thanks for the info!

I'm assuming Texas weather isn't much different than Arkansas weather except maybe hotter in Texas. I will definitely give your ideas some thought.

I've got ten acres but only about two of it is cleared, the rest is wooded...we have a small pond that I'm working on filling via well pump since it dries up in the summer, but we are also a little over a mile from the Ouachita river.


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