# newbie pollen/honey question



## Shamansmith (Sep 16, 2008)

should one only plant "flavourful" plants around thier hive? should one only plant plants that one would eat them selves (herbs/fruits)? like if i planted a tomato or squash plant would the honey then have that sort of flavour? and will just flowers like....liliac or such make the honey taste like that (as in that bad chemical taste) or will maybe only the smell come through the honey? 

oh, also i know bees travel far in order to get pollen and necter but if you have ALOT of bee friendly plants around will they just stay there assuming there is enough pollen?


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## dragonfly (Jun 18, 2002)

Not really, and there's a couple of reasons. Bees forage generally in a 4 mile diameter area. The only way you could completely control what kind of honey you hives produce is to own a space that large and plant primarily a single nectar-producing plant. They don't collect nectar from squash and tomatoes. They get pollen from squash, and they rarely work tomatoes, and if they do, they are getting pollen from them also. Plant whatever you want for your bees. There won't usually be enough concentration of any one plant to say it will "taint" the taste. There are a couple of exceptions apparently, because some beekeepers report a bad taste from goldenrod and a few other flower sources.


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## Shamansmith (Sep 16, 2008)

well its a small yard. so basicly any thing i have back there, assuming that its not just a huge lot of only one sort of plant, like a lage quantity of all differrent plants, it wont have to much effect on the flavour of they honey? and just to clarify, if there is even a somewhat large amount of a non ediable plant it will not effect the taste of the honey adversly?


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## dragonfly (Jun 18, 2002)

Shamansmith said:


> well its a small yard. so basicly any thing i have back there, assuming that its not just a huge lot of only one sort of plant, like a lage quantity of all differrent plants, it wont have to much effect on the flavour of they honey? and just to clarify, if there is even a somewhat large amount of a non ediable plant it will not effect the taste of the honey adversly?


 Well, it just depends how how large a quantity compared to other preferred nectar plants available in your 2 mile radius.


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

Typically the bulk of the bees working aren't going to venture to far from the hive to collect pollen and nectar. But they are looking for forage plants that produce high volumes of either and places where there are a lot of them. You'll see bees working plants around your home that are also producing in large amounts in the area. You typically won't see them working a handful of plants you've planted that aren't also available in numbers away from your yard.

When flows are low they will forage around for whatever they can find and you are likely to see more activity locally if you have the right kind of plants around. But don't look for 5 or 10 plants to amount to anything, even 50 or 100. There just isn't that much available from a single plant.

And, plants do not have or need to be edible to produce excellent honey. I would venture to say that most of the better honeys come from plants or trees that aren't eaten or produce fruit.

Dragonfly, anyone that doesn't like GR honey must be a honey snob!


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## dragonfly (Jun 18, 2002)

Bizzybee said:


> Dragonfly, anyone that doesn't like GR honey must be a honey snob!


I've never had it, so I can't speak with any authority.


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## berkshire bee (Jan 28, 2007)

My yard is fairly small, about 75ft x 50, but we have enough flower and vegetable plants to attract ours and a buddy's bees for watching and taking photos. Some stuff we've planted like thyme.oregano,collards, sunflowers, buckwheat etc and by letting some of the yard go natural there's dendelions, joe pye weed, goldenrod, asters, sweet white clover etc. It's not a major supply of pollen and nectar but the bees work them continuously, go away with full baskets and stomachs and are a joy to watch and photograph


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