I cut a few Acres of wild weeds that I'd like to replant with honey bees in mind. Is there anything better than clover? Maybe a wildflower mix. This is in Zone 4B

Bee Culture magazine had an article a few years back on Anise Hyssop being particularly good, something like 1 acre could support 100 hives. White Sweet clover is good for bees which is not the standard clover you have in your yard it is typically found on roadsides.

prob too late now but buckwheat will really feed the bees

Monarchs would have liked those milkweeds. Did they get to them first?

Sweet Clover should do well in that zone. Just be advised it's a biennial taking two years to bloom. As said buckwheat is a quick return blooming just three weeks from seed however it doesn't reseed itself as well as sweet clover. Borage is another excellent annual. Any of your brassicas that can handle your zone and bloom are excellent early season nectar and pollen sources. Oil seed rape is a major nectar source. Milkweeds are good as well.

I have 2 hives and we planted some wildflower and milkweed this year. I would say our success has been limited. The milkweed seed I bought was supposed to be stratified but it didn’t germinate. We’ll try again this fall. I thought I’d also put in some white clover.

Pheasants Forever sells seed mixes that they call Pollinator mixes . They blend them for different areas throughout the country so that you will be planting what is native to your region . If you look under the Signature Seed mixes you can find what they have available .We have used some in our local chapter and have had good success with them .

If you brush hog buckwheat after it goes to seed, you’ll get a second crop. If you time it right, you can get three. Second and third are better than the first, or at least it has been that way for me.

The "pollinator Mix" suggestion sounded promising. While not from Pheasants Forever; I found one and checked the ingredients. A half dozen clover varieties! I guess I have a lot to learn. But, I probably have a year or two with the first clover planting.

I have had success with buckwheat drilled 6-8 weeks prior to a frost in bare or prepared soil. It sprouts quick to choke out weeds and is good protection for a clover crop. Crimson clover is good for spring and white clovers are excellent and perennial. Sweet clover is good to produce lots of nectar in its second year if you get a good stand the first year.
Sunflowers do decent in summer months and don’t forget about nectar producing trees such as tulip poplar , black locusts , sourwood,
I also see bees on partridge peas a lot.
A good mix of annuals and perennials with thought to season long nectar producing blooms can sure be helpful when there is little blooming. It takes millions of blooms to produce surplus honey but bees can benefit if they can find nectar when very little natural blooming is occurring.

T-Rex Our PF chapter is doing an Elementary School Science Field Trip with fourth ,fifth ,and sixth graders . We had the kids help with the planting in 2016 . The mix was all perennials so it does not need to be seeded every year. We take them back each year and identify the different types of plants and the insects that are using the using the flowers that are blooming .I do not have any experience with honey bees and bee hives so I do not know if that would be all you would need .But I think all pollinator mix would be a good foundation if you are looking for something that would be producing perennial flowers for birds and insects . Song birds and game birds such as pheasants and turkey use those plots to feed on the insects also

Alittle longer turn around but the trees have it over most anything else....and most overlooked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI-i-aj34Vc

The DNR gives out dry root flowering shrubs to promote pollinators in the spring. Idk how you sign up but a coworker got on the list and shared this past spring. I got high bush cranberry, june berry and choke cherry.
I'd also check with the U extension office to find out what grows best and/or what may be lacking in your area.

About 10 years ago I put out 40 acers of native grasses to help bring back quail and rabbit don't see much change. I got into bees keeping 4 years ago so now I putting some of the fields in yellow and white sweet clover. Here the yellow comes on in mid June when its gone the white is ready to bloom, it and white dutch clover seems to work good for the bees.

I have about 15 hives near my lot I plant for bees. I plant buckwheat, rapeseed, crimson and white clovers, sweet clover. Right now though - I see more activity in my pumpkins......early morning by 6 am near every flower in my pumpkin patch has honey bees in the flowers and they are getting covered in pollen. I like to plant things in my lot that bloom when the natural dearth is on and I never mow my road ditches with all kinds of natives until after frost.

You may wish to plant some trees around the edges. Dwarf or semi-dwarf crabapple trees are excellent for bees and used to pollinate apple and pear varieties in orchards. They have golf ball size fruit that makes delicious jelly.

I planted 500 semi-dwarf Apple trees for our bees. We have 4 hives. We have wild blackberries all over. We also have many tulip poplar trees. The bees are happy.

Thanks. Lots of good information.

I did a quick search, and found tons of information from the MN DNR. I haven't had the time to actually go through it, but will this weekend.

Trees are out of the question. I already have lots of them in another area. This area is along my ultra light runway so, needs to stay low.


I've come across a few commercially available pollinator mixes; but at over $1000/acre is not justifiable.

Don't overlook the vetches or alfalfa.

Buckwheat is inexpensive to grow. It requires no spraying. Mine blossoms for a very long time. It is always covered in bees. I am going to plant a mix of clover for the bees.

Crown vetch and Perennial sweet pea do very well and bees love them. They both are perennials and spread very well.

Thanks to the University of Minnesota, I think I've found a good direction to go. They have been experimenting with a "bee Lawn". It comprises several pounds of a fine fescue grass to a couple ounces each of a few native prairie flowers. It stands up to a lot of neglect, but can still be mowed and controlled. The exact components I'm still thinking about but most highly recommended are:

• White clover (ok, not native)
• Creeping Thyme
• Lanceleaf Self-heal
• Ground plum
• Lanceleaf Tickweed
• Calico American Aster