# What's the fuss about dandelions?



## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I have read umpteen posts about dandelions and bees relying on them as an early food source. I quit spraying our 1/4 mile long ditchbank and haven't sprayed my yard and there are dandelions everywhere. They've been blooming for a month or longer I guess. The neighbors yard is covered with them. The ditch bank across the road is covered with them. We've got them everywhere too. I have walked and looked and walked and looked. The next time I see a bee feeding on one, will be the FIRST time I see a bee feeding on one. I can only guess that dandelions are not a preferred food source for honeybees and we have something better in bloom. Opinions?


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## quilaho (Dec 29, 2012)

I think you need more bees so you can get better utilization of your dandelion crop.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

I'm quite a bit further north than you, and a lot of bee plants have/are blooming.

The value of dandelions is the '_early_' food source you mentioned. I'll bet there was a time earlier that little besides dandelions were blooming. Now that there are lots of other choices, dandelions may be 'just another face in the crowd'.


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## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

Watch them bringing in pollen. The fluorescent orange stuff is dandelion, and you will see quite a bit of it. The pollen actually flies up off the flower onto the bees as they approach, the static electricity from flight attracts is. They did evolve together, after all.

I don't know when the bees visit the dandelions though, it's possible they are mostly early morning. 

I see quite a bit of pollen coming in from them, even though I don't see bees on them much.

Peter


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

quilaho said:


> I think you need more bees so you can get better utilization of your dandelion crop.


I'm working on it!


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I will look for the flo orange pollen. I have a few frames that are almost solid pollen stores. Most of it is tan, grey, light yellow, with a red and bluish green scattered about. I think the tan is maple? and the red may be henbit, but I have NO idea what is green-blue. More green than blue but.... I find it fascinating too that the bees segregate the pollen per cell, according to color. 

They may have fed on the dandelions earlier but I didn't see any then either. LOL


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

I'm our area brad we have other weeds that the bees prefer. We have loads of them. It is rare to see them on dandolions. If they need them they will use em.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

I used to think the same way, never saw bees on dandelions, but I found one year, that they only work some flowers at certain times of the day. I forget what time of day I saw them on dandelions, but they do work them. Maybe you are not seeing them at the right time of day?


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## birdie (Feb 11, 2013)




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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Dandlions give nectar only with higher ambient temperatures, say 16-18 degree Celsius. That is the problem with dandelions here right now, too. Plenty of it, but temperatures are just a little too low. We have some sunny weather underway, so hope for a decent dandelion flow is not buried yet.


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## Chemguy (Nov 26, 2012)

I haven't seen bees on dandelions in the spring, but I do see them in summer. In my area for the past couple of years the maple (several types), willow and henbit (in protected areas) have come out first.


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## TWall (May 19, 2010)

I keep the dandelions out of my yard, the neighbors provide more than my bees can handle.

Tom


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## barberberryfarm (Feb 16, 2013)

Brad, I'm down here near Montgomery and the dandilions start showing up here when the henbit starts to bloom in mid February. I've noticed the bees definitely go to the dandilions for their pollen before they'll go to the henbit. However, once the red maples, early fruit trees and other more tasty flowering plants start blooming in early March, I don't see them anywhere near the dandilions.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

They are not only an EARLY source of nectar and pollen, but one that comes back everytime it rains, so they fill a lot of gaps. I plant them all the time...


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

If dandelion nectar is water thin they were bringing in a ton of it Saturday - by late afternoon it was everywhere.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

The Champlain valley has a huge dandelion bloom, and I've seen 50 pound honey crops from it.


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## Beeswax Paintings (Apr 10, 2014)

When I first arrived in North America, I used to think dandelions were "pretty little flowers." They peppered our yard. Then I learned they were weeds. Now that I know bees like them, they might once again be pretty little flowers.


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## Robndixie (Oct 20, 2012)

brad, i don't see bees on dandelions very often either, i think it's a timing thing. last year my bees didn't work my blackberries but this year they worked them like crazy for a week or so. now clover is coming in and they aren't hitting the blackberries nearly as hard even though there are more in bloom now than there were a couple of weeks ago. clover is running late this year so i'm guessing blackberries were the best choice at the time.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I will keep a check more closely early next spring. It seems though that dandelions are not our first flowers to bloom. Maples bloom before they do and the bees here seem to love Maples. 

MP, I have never seen any field that remotely had that large a number of dandelions.


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## McBee7 (Dec 25, 2013)

Love the pictures Birdie...It's amazing that bee, can even see, with all that pollen on its face..lol..
As a kid in mid summer, I used to catch bees in a fruit jar in the dandilion patches, seems to me it was really hot then..

==McBee7==


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## Bob J (Feb 25, 2013)

I used to be pretty adamant about pulling them when they came up..... Amazing how keeping bees changes your perspective....;- )


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## Beelosopher (Sep 6, 2012)

Beeswax Paintings said:


> When I first arrived in North America, I used to think dandelions were "pretty little flowers." They peppered our yard. Then I learned they were weeds. Now that I know bees like them, they might once again be pretty little flowers.


[this isn't pointed at you specifically beeswax paintings, more general commentary off of your post]

This always makes me laugh because it seems we have this odd relationship with things called "weeds". I love dandelions. As kids we used to rub them on our faces like war paint. I make dandelion wine out of them every year for my wife now. Heard you can eat them but never tried. They light up the rolling hillside with no planting effort, what isn't to like? More recent years taught me they provide a valuable service to bees. Can you do that with most or any flowers that aren't labeled weeds in your yard? 

One of my brothers (who lives in a development) systematically commits dandelion genocide each year. He really hates them and calls them weeds (he used to like them too). Sometimes I wonder what drove him mad


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## brooksbeefarm (Apr 13, 2008)

I remember reading that a town (or country) survived on eating dandelions, that every part of it is eatable. When i was growing up and going barefooted and seen a dandelion, you looked before you stepped on it, because there was usually a bee on it.


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## franktrujillo (Jan 22, 2009)

well it all depends on whats blooming at the time currently they fill in the gap here before the fruit trees start to bloom.dandelions start here after the elms and willows my bees are all over them as soon as the first one opens.even right outside there box they continue to bee on them until there gone.


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## Bob J (Feb 25, 2013)

brooksbeefarm said:


> I remember reading that a town (or country) survived on eating dandelions, that every part of it is eatable. When i was growing up and going barefooted and seen a dandelion, you looked before you stepped on it, because there was usually a bee on it.


IIRC they were actually planted as a crop during WWII.....


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## Dan. NY (Apr 15, 2011)

I second the dandelion wine... Good stuff.


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## philip.devos (Aug 10, 2013)

birdie said:


> View attachment 10074


Birdie, I think you need to get your bees some goggles.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

One of my favorite "Beverly Hillbillies" scenes is when they first arrive in Beverly Hills and Granny sends Jethro and Ellie May out to get some greens while Granny starts supper. They come back exhausted and dejected and inform Granny "there must've been a famine Granny, why there ain't no greens to be found for miles around, it's all picked clean, not even a dandelion! Nothing but grass as far as you can see!"


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## Beeswax Paintings (Apr 10, 2014)

brooksbeefarm said:


> I remember reading that a town (or country) survived on eating dandelions, that every part of it is eatable. When i was growing up and going barefooted and seen a dandelion, you looked before you stepped on it, because there was usually a bee on it.


You're absolutely right!:
The root of the dandelion can be used for medicinal purposes. Its flowers can be harvested for wine. And its greens have a bitterness that can be delicious (plus they're packed with iron). http://www.thekitchn.com/10-ways-to-use-those-dandelions-recipes-from-the-kitchn-188774

I also came across this recipe. Looks good although, based on what I've seen in my hood, I'm better off buying my wild greens. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dandelion-salad/


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

At the moment the dandelions are providing a decent nectar flow. Much more than the fruit trees.



























In some hidden places there can be found lots and lots of dandelions. 



























I use dandelions as follows: I collect one or two hand full of dandelion blossoms and cook them in just a cup of water, lightly simmering for 20 minutes. In the meantime I melt and brown sugar in a shallow pan. Once the water has boiled down a bit I strain off the blossoms and pour the water carefully into the syrup. Stirring it for a minute and let it set and cool in jars. At wintertime the resulting syrup makes a nice remedy for colds. Especially good for treating sore throats.


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## MattDavey (Dec 16, 2011)

Comments about timing of supering in reference to Dandelions always confused me because here the main Dandelion bloom is not until early Summer. So it is after swarm season and after most fruit trees have finished flowering.

They are around for a few months before that but not that many are flowering up until that time. So not an early source here.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

And I thought you keep on supering all year round in good ol' Australia.


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## wcubed (Aug 24, 2008)

David,
That water white nectar that you see is likely bedstraw/catch weed - an 8 inch weed that is the whte patch of weed bloom you see now in hayfields and pastures. It's late this year. In that patch of white bloom the blooms are so close together that the bees can walk from one bloom to the next. The bees love it.
Walt


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

wcubed said:


> David,
> That water white nectar that you see is likely bedstraw/catch weed - an 8 inch weed that is the whte patch of weed bloom you see now in hayfields


I wonder if your bedstraw is the same as our bedstraw. Do you have a photo?

Here, bedstraw fills the air with a sweet smell, but bees never visit it.


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## tsmullins (Feb 17, 2011)

birdie said:


> View attachment 10074


Nice pictures. Were they Photoshopped?  Just kidding of course. In our region, I sometimes see bees on dandelions.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I didn't know what bedstraw was, so I googled it. We call it Cleavers around here, if it is what it looked like to me in the pictures. It sticks or rather, clings to just about everything.


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## wcubed (Aug 24, 2008)

That's the one. That no doubt is the source of the other common name (catch weed), It has fine hairs on the stems that stick to your socks. Do plants have "hairs?" It has a couple other stem novelties. The stems are more square than round, and as it grows each stem forks, repeatedly. 1, 2, 4, 8, and the last fork is just below the touching double bloom, making a solid mat of bloom in a solid stand of the plant. If mowed early, that solid mat can be only 3 inchs above the ground. And cold temp tolerant. Will outgrow and shade fescue.

The easiest way to ID a plant you don't know is to drop a sample off at your county Extension office. If the locals don't know, they send it to someone who does. You will get an answer. Did that on this weed, because of its water white nectar. But we don't get that nectar in the supers - It blooms in the storage lull, just prior to main flow.

Walt


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

Yep, it's hairy and loves to grow in my shrubbery beds. We must have a little different variety here because I have never seen a mat of blooms. Perhaps I just haven't seen enough of it growing together to form a mat.


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## PowerEdge (Oct 14, 2013)

Here is a video we made of our newly installed package bees bringing in Pollen on day 3. I believe it is mainly dandelion pollen.


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