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

Bee lawns produce more flowers than typical lawns, but FAR less that something like clover or buckwheat.

I have wildflower gardens here. The plants I see honeybees use most here is purple cone flower, Lavender Hyssop, Joe Pye weed and Hollow Joe Pie weed. These plants come up every year.
A good source for seeds and plants for pollinators would be "Prairie Nurseries" out of Wisconsin. They can offer plants by each or hundreds. They also offer many types of native seeds. I have grown many of mine plants from seed but it takes a couple of years for them to bloom.
You could add some of this into any clover mix but remember that it will take a couple of years for these plants to bloom profusely. The Joe pye weeds are absolute bee magnets but do prefer a more moist soil.

I hear ya! From what I am reading the ratios are not rocket science. I can easily adjust the proportions and/or varieties. My objectives are:

• Low maintenance. Meaning no watering or weeding and minimal mowing
• Provide an easy source of nectar and pollen for a dozen hives.
• Spruce up the danged place. I'm tired of looking at weeds

I just planted some buckwheat. Was surprised it sprouted in 2 days. Should flower out in a couple weeks and will be good until first frost.

One of my neighbors is a beekeeper and as far as I know, pretty knowledgeable on the subject. He prefers buckwheat and yellow clover if planting a plot with bees in mind. I have seen zillions of "his" bees swarming on buckwheat that I have had on my place. It is quite the sight and nice to know that I am also helping his bees. Side benefit...quail love the yellow clover and all gamebirds like the buckwheat and it is a good soil builder too.

Another perennial I will add to my list is culvers root. I was just out looking and found honeybees in my purple cone flower and culvers root. Somebody has a couple of hives about 1/2 mile from here and I suspect this is where the bees are coming from. They were here last year too. I enjoy watching them. I will add more plants to this list when I confirm they are using them.
Culvers root is another plant that will grow in a wet soil or a ditch. It is long lived and here it has spread slowly from seed down my drain ditches.

I should mention that lavender hyssop can grow on a very dry ground. Whats worth mentioning is that the leaves smell loud of licorice. Last trapping season, I boiled down large hands full of the leaves to make a strong hyssop tea of sorts. This I added to a little Colgate peppermint toothpaste to make a large quantity of CHEAP rat lure. Now, the toothpaste may work just as well without the hyssop added. There I was with all those hyssop leaves and you all know that trappers are going to try some strange things...and sometimes they actually work. I'll just say that adding the hyssop tincture did not hurt the toothpaste in the least. The lure did catch rats.
Luck!

Alot of the local pheasants forever chapters have reimbursment programs for planting habitat mixes, might check with them before you say no to $1000 acre mixes. Check out Prairie Nursery out of wisconsin, they have some great mixes also.

i put dutch white clover in my lawn the bees work it pretty good .if you don't mined it in your grass. i heard hairy vitch is good to

Man, this is getting tough. I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Since I've got a few acres to play with, I think I'll just start dumping seed. A little strip of this here and a little of that there.


Is there something I can plant right now and get flowers yet this year? As long as I'm experimenting, no need to wait for a fall planting.

If your planting from seeds, if you do it properly, you won’t have any flowers for a couple years. Mow,mow and mow some more for the first year at 2 to 4 inchheight. 2nd year 4 to 6 inch height, 3rd year 6 to 12 inches. You want the root mass to develop to out compete the weeds.

buckwheat will flower this year in mich. i don't know about mn. i planted buckwheat 3 days ago

As long as you get rain after planting, buckwheat will flower this year. I plant about 50 lbs per acre if I remember right.

Thanks. I'm headed to the buckwheat store.

I'm sure most know the far different taste of Buckwheat honey compared to wildflower...or clover honey. I like it, but many DO NOT. Just something to think about before planting.

You are right about the flavor, and it has a distinctive dark color. No worries, though. It is an annual, and just something to control the weeds until my fall planting.

The buck wheat is perfect takes 3 weeks to bloom and will bloom for 3 weeks so best if you got a minimum of 6 weeks before frost.
I have sown white clover with the buckwheat and it gives some protection from winter. Work the ground and get a good seed/soil contact with Cultipacker. It is a stronger flavor but I like it ok. Good in tea and cooking too but more importantly it gives bees good forage going into late fall winter.

Good point WHSKR. The Buckwheat honey will most likely feed the bees overwinter, not part of the harvest.

Buckwheat honey is wonderful stuff if you like it dark and strong. Many compare it to molasses. I wouldn't say it's that harsh but it definitely is full flavored.

I personally like buckwheat honey but unless you are into honey, it is an acquired taste. Average person doesn't like the stuff.

I generally like darker full flavored honeys. Tulip Poplar is my favorite followed by buckwheat. The next two though are oddly much more subtle. A tie between the buttery tupelo/ogeechee and the water white basswood a very mild honey that has a hint of mint to it.

Love the tulip poplar honey

Sourwood, palmetto, orange blossom and gallberry follow in that order. Clover is actually low on my list.

Is tulip poplar honey the same as “Tupelo Honey”?

I have heard a lot about it, but, I have never tasted tupelo honey. I do see that there are quite a number of sources available. Links to a few are found below.

Tupelo honey video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=4KA_T-LVVZQ

Tupelo Honey- https://www.lltupelohoney.com/ourproduct.cfm

Smiley Honey- https://www.smileyhoney.com/collections/...ant=32986988104

Sleeping Bear Farms- https://www.sleepingbearfarms.com/tupelo-honey/

Sweetwater Creek Honey Farm- http://sweetwatercreekhoneyfarm.com/buy-honey-now/tupelo-honey/

No, tulip and tupelo are two different things.
Also be aware there are three different tupeloes, all honey producers, but only one worthy of being called Tupelo. So much so that the state of Florida has laws regarding labeling.

You want white/ogeechee tupelo which is only produced in the Appilachicola basin in the Florida panhandle and in a few locations in south Georgia.
It is a pale amber color and it's most distinctive flavor is that of butter.

LA, I am surprised you've never tasted it considering it comes from just across the state line from you.
But then again that's probably a fact of it's rarity. Each year's crop is essentially sold before the bees make it.

Tulip tree is often referred to as tulip poplar.

You can plant what you want, but if they find something they like better miles away, that's were they will be.

BTW, the three types of tupelo

Black/Upland/Black Gum/Pepperidge produces a darker but still good honey. Rarely found in pure stands or in numbers enough to produce a pure varietal honey. Honey considered "baker" grade. Found on upland sites in mixed hardwoods.

Swamp/Water/Bear actually two possibly three species but treated the same for nectar. This is the tupelo of southern swamps found growing in or adjacent to water from the fall line south. Often found in large pure stands or with bald/pond cypress. Produces a light mild flavored but unremarkable honey.

Ogeechee/White see above. Found in very specific stream bank sites. Can only grow under very specific water flow/flood regimens.