# Nectar production question on the plants end...?



## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

There's another trick with gardening also where the gardeners will cut off the dead blooms. My neighbor told me about this, and said if you do it that the plant will create new flowers to replace it. I'm curious how well you could cheat to get extra nectar this way? And if people have tried it...? 

Yes,, AKA lawn mower, bush hoging, or cutting hay. some fields by me have bloom 3 or 4 times depending on how many hay cuttings.
the ditches and medians also get mowed one time and offer ,now some second sweet clover, trefoil etc.

1 acre, would be for one frame of bees,, so would not matter to most keepers, 500 Acres , may be something to ponder, but the watering equipment and fuel, would be many times the value of the honey.

may as well buy the honey, rather irrigate the ground to raise the honey. Unless you have more money than you need... then I am sure I could set it up for you.. PM me for a quote.

GG


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

I'm trying to work out a plan for my acreage outside of town that would provide a full years worth of flow for my bees. This would involve planting various pollinator flowering plants along with access "roads" of grass and clover. I was told that mowing 25% of the roads weekly would extend the blooming of the clover over the season, usually through mid August. I do have a year round creek running along the edge of the property and am considering drilling a well. I returned to work as a consultant after "retiring" last year and haven't had time figured out flow calc's for the well vs acreage. In NJ it's easier to drill a well than get a draw off permit. I think the focus on planting would be for native or higher yield plants during times of dearth-for us that's mid summer usually and outside of that time line, they could focus on the normal seasonal trees and plants.


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

As I understand, and I may be wrong,, it takes a million flower "visits" to have 1 TBL Spoon of honey. A few for the pollen to raise the bee, a few for the wax to hold the honey, a few for the carbs to support the trips to the flower, then the nectar itself. keep in mind the bee may burn 4 carbs to go collect 9 so all the carbs are not "surplus"

So as you ponder that it soon become apparent that "choosing" the Apiary site has way more bang for the buck than "tweaking" the site. ball park starting guess is 80-120 acres per hive if you plan to "provide"
so 4-5 hives would need a square mile, 640 acres.

keep notes I would be interested in the findings.

I would fall into the site picker , rather the site maker.

GG


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## Vermillion Artisan Cidery (Jul 9, 2021)

A simple google search gives this.. Sweet clover yields enough nectar to make *250 to 500 pounds of honey per acre* (Pellet, 1920 and Kolbina, 2007), I will say that if I had running water through an area, i'd try to get that area planted with flora that is contusive to honey bees, as then you don't have to worry about the permit to draw the water. First year here, and I have about 2 acres white, 2 acres sunflowers, and another half and acre of gardens, and the bees were pretty well stocked till everything died Jul-Aug. I didn't notice a huge amount of necture/honey production but my newbie mistakes could be a huge part of that

I've read/heard that diversity is key so interplanting is great, and i've been using cover crops to supplement while i'm trying to get the orchard set up.


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

Vermillion Artisan Cidery said:


> A simple google search gives this.. Sweet clover yields enough nectar to make *250 to 500 pounds of honey per acre* (Pellet, 1920 and Kolbina, 2007), I will say that if I had running water through an area, i'd try to get that area planted with flora that is contusive to honey bees, as then you don't have to worry about the permit to draw the water. First year here, and I have about 2 acres white, 2 acres sunflowers, and another half and acre of gardens, and the bees were pretty well stocked till everything died Jul-Aug. I didn't notice a huge amount of necture/honey production but my newbie mistakes could be a huge part of that
> 
> I've read/heard that diversity is key so interplanting is great, and i've been using cover crops to supplement while i'm trying to get the orchard set up.


not buying it,, everything you read on the web is not by default true.

so then a 40 acre field can produce 5 to 10 ton of honey, hay likely, honey not buying it.

Sorry the math does not ring true. at 500lb an acre you could have 60 hives on 40 acres, not seen that ever.

sorry by BS meter is going off. sweet clover is good but not that good.

GG


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## Jack Grimshaw (Feb 10, 2001)

I take Pellet's published observations with a grain of salt.
Like GG states,it just does not make sense.
Did someone actually net an acre?Did someone analyze the honey to determine the origin?
Most likely this was an extrapolation based on approximately X acres and Y bee hives over Z days with the typical beekeeper fudge factor.

It is admirable to try and increase your bee's forage and the best way would be to plant trees.A species such as basswood would give a 3 dimensional planting, a exponential increase over the 2 dimensional planting of clover.


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