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Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466230
02/19/19 02:20 AM
02/19/19 02:20 AM
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 25,425
Georgia
warrior Online content
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Georgia
Trees. A single large mature blooming tree (tulip poplar, red maple, black locust, sourwood, basswood) if laid out flat covers a half acre or more and you can fit several dozen trees per acre. Plus they'll feed bees for the better part of a century without the need to replant.

Truth is there is no way to plants forbs in large enough quantity to matter to bees unless you're talking acres.


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Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466244
02/19/19 04:43 AM
02/19/19 04:43 AM
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South metro, MN
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Calvin Offline
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As Warrior states, certain trees (always overlooked) feed bees far more than most flowering crops. Search "Mike connor bees and trees" on youtube if interested.

As far as plants, the Goldenrod is the last blooming (easy to seed) plant we have up here in the north that produces a honey flow.

BUT, if you just want to feed some local bees, I'd suggest just putting out a sugar water feeder or two in the fall. Kind of like a bird feeder but you might be surprised at the amount of bees that will come to just some sugar water. And it's a lot more bang for the buck in the bee world. It's what most of us bee keepers feed our bees come fall....especially up here in the north.

Last edited by Calvin; 02/19/19 04:49 AM.
Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466279
02/19/19 07:02 AM
02/19/19 07:02 AM
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Missouri
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Missouri
Any white clover.


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Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466285
02/19/19 07:09 AM
02/19/19 07:09 AM
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NH
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trapNH Offline
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Some of the things that bees like will make very dark honey, and will change the taste of it also. Some of the plants can be very invasive too.

Re: What to plant for bees [Re: warrior] #6466286
02/19/19 07:11 AM
02/19/19 07:11 AM
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Posts: 14,804
Greene County,Virginia
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run Offline
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Originally Posted by warrior
Trees. A single large mature blooming tree (tulip poplar, red maple, black locust, sourwood, basswood) if laid out flat covers a half acre or more and you can fit several dozen trees per acre. Plus they'll feed bees for the better part of a century without the need to replant.

Truth is there is no way to plants forbs in large enough quantity to matter to bees unless you're talking acres.

X2 on the trees.


wanna be goat farmer.
Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466312
02/19/19 07:45 AM
02/19/19 07:45 AM
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Rodney,Ohio
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What are you wanting the bees to do? Are you wanting to attract them to a garden or are you making honey?

Re: What to plant for bees [Re: warrior] #6466445
02/19/19 10:40 AM
02/19/19 10:40 AM
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 7,081
MO
cfowler Online content
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Originally Posted by warrior
Trees. A single large mature blooming tree (tulip poplar, red maple, black locust, sourwood, basswood) if laid out flat covers a half acre or more and you can fit several dozen trees per acre. Plus they'll feed bees for the better part of a century without the need to replant.

Truth is there is no way to plants forbs in large enough quantity to matter to bees unless you're talking acres.

Interesting and informative. Thanks Warrior. My wife and I planted a tulip poplar and a small patch of native wild flowers in our yard. Mostly my wife likes the hummingbirds and butterflies of course, but I noticed a lot of bees started visiting our yard after we had our patch up and blooming. In fact, we've had swarms twice since we started including this in our landscaping. Not sure if the swarms were related, but I found it interesting to see such masses of bees.

Lot of bee-keepers in my area have their bee boxes located in locust groves. They also set out tubs of sugar water in the late fall near the bees, and the bees very actively use them. Getting a little clearer picture now of the what and why's. Cool stuff.


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Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466458
02/19/19 10:46 AM
02/19/19 10:46 AM
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Way too open ended a question to even attemp an answer. Need more specifics. Acres to be planted, number of colonies, type of honey desired, whether pollination is the goal, yield of honey expected, management style of bee keeping. The list goes on and on. As a beekeeper, I will not even attempt to answer your question as it is far too open ended, sorry...

Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466460
02/19/19 10:47 AM
02/19/19 10:47 AM
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PA
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Chicory and clovers would be good.

Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466466
02/19/19 10:52 AM
02/19/19 10:52 AM
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Kanabec Cty, MN
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Trees are definitely major bee feeders but they take serious time to mature to flowering age sadly. The poster has yet to add more details on his situation.


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Re: What to plant for bees [Re: trapNH] #6466579
02/19/19 12:42 PM
02/19/19 12:42 PM
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Georgia
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Originally Posted by trapNH
Some of the things that bees like will make very dark honey, and will change the taste of it also. Some of the plants can be very invasive too.


Shhhh! Don't give away our secret.

privet, sweet clover, tallow, brazilian pepper, knotweed, star thistle

All major honey producers and all non native invasives

As are honey bees


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Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466590
02/19/19 01:07 PM
02/19/19 01:07 PM
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NH
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NH
Knotweed is a great late season honey producer, But up here it is very invasive.

Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6466601
02/19/19 01:17 PM
02/19/19 01:17 PM
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MN, Land of 10,000 Lakes
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When I raised bees my favorite honey came from alfalfa from local farmers. IMO, clover or alfalfa are great bee crops and they're perennials.


I don't care how nice the hand soap smells, you should never walk out of the restroom sniffing your fingers.
Re: What to plant for bees [Re: Trapper7] #6466625
02/19/19 01:44 PM
02/19/19 01:44 PM
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Michigan
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Originally Posted by Trapper7
When I raised bees my favorite honey came from alfalfa from local farmers. IMO, clover or alfalfa are great bee crops and they're perennials.


Alfalfa use to be huge producer in the lower part of this state and I enjoy the flavor. Unfortunately its really hit and miss production wise anymore. Milk production happens on a huge scale here now as is the case in many states and that impacts how alfalfa is farmed. Modern practices means the alfalfa never gets even close to flowering before its cut. Even as recently as 15 years ago, it was common to have small alfalfa fields scattered around and sometimes those would flower before they were cut especially if the weather wasnt good and any baling was involved. But now alfalfa is cut as soon as it gets a foot tall or so and its a non stop thing; they can chop entire sections straight into silage trailers in a day when same amount of ground would have taken them a week in years past. The days of 3 cuttings a year are long over. About the only time we hit alfalfa crop is on the fields that have been played out come fall but they haven't been hit with herbicide and replanted just yet. In those cases, its common for good parts of an entire section to all bloom at once. If you are there then things can be great.

Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6467084
02/19/19 09:33 PM
02/19/19 09:33 PM
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East-Central Wisconsin
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As stated above we too have alfalfa managed similarly. The crop is cut in the bud stage and then typically every 30-35 days depending upon maturity. The crop is typically 24-28 inches tall at those stages of maturity and most get 4 and several 5 cuttings per year. Most is taken out of production after the 3rd full year or earlier as corn silage is now the major forage for most medium and large dairies. Higher yields, one cutting with fewer issues like disease, insects and winter injury.
We still have a some who let one cutting, usually 3rd cutting that they allow to flower. The quality stays up and this gives the crop better wintering capacity.


Bryce

Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6467110
02/19/19 09:52 PM
02/19/19 09:52 PM
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Pa.
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Originally Posted by SDB
I am looking for something that provides a late summer bloom for the bees. Or anything they love. What to plant?


If one is looking for late summer blooms, I don’t think there are any late summer nectar or pollen producing trees here in my area. Willow, aspen, maple, basswood, locust, catalpa and tulip poplar ( good bee trees in Pa ) are wrapped up by early summer.

Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6467115
02/19/19 09:58 PM
02/19/19 09:58 PM
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IL - Shawnee Ntl Forest
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Around here it's red clover.


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Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6467261
02/20/19 12:05 AM
02/20/19 12:05 AM
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Georgia
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Georgia
Sourwood and sumac are the last major tree crop here in Georgia coming in late June into July. I see many of the agritourism farms planting zinnias for the kids to pick and the butterflies and bees are all over them. Sunflowers are another good late summer crop that can double up for dove hunting or wildlife planting. Lespadeza the same.


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Re: What to plant for bees [Re: SDB] #6467263
02/20/19 12:09 AM
02/20/19 12:09 AM
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Georgia
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Sourwood is hit or miss though. While it's grows statewide it's only good for a honey crop in the north ga mountains and then it can be very site specific. Some years you take bees to the mountains and get nothing and others you load up. All depends if the right coves get exactly the right weather. The mountains are funny that way, there are places where one side of a mountain might get ten more inches of rain than the other side.


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