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PLANTING FOR BEES

84K views 243 replies 62 participants last post by  BULLSEYE BILL 
#1 ·
I have read that plantings for bee forage is not generaly a profitable endevor.
OK, so this is a hobby.
I have ten acres of crop land left that was not put into CRP and would like to put it into use for the bees.
My area is just west of the Flint Hills in eastern central Kansas. Main crops in this area are wheat, milo, soybeans, corn and sorgum. Alfalfa and clover do quite well here, I do not know if canola would.
I know that the clovers will bloom at different times and there is some overlap, I do not know in which order they bloom. I have thought of sowing a mix of white, yellow, and red with alfalfa, however it may be better to strip sow them seperatly in hope of cutting them to possibly entice a second bloom.
I have quite a few questions and would like anyones input on how they would or have done this.
Some terms that I have read and do not know are the names; sainfoin, trefoil, and trifolium clovers. What are these?
The local co-op listed both red and crimson clover, is one better for bees than the other? Another that I had not know of is hubam.
And lastly, does anyone know of a source for goldenrod seed?
Any help would be appreciated.
Bill
 
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#77 ·
Bill, I wonder if the clover you are referring to is one of the Berseem clovers? There is a variety that is called "Big Bee" that I have read about. Berseem is a good clover for heavy soils in bottomland areas. It's not a great reseeder, so is normally used as an annual, and is a cool weather plant, but doesn't tolerate sustained freezing spells below 22 degrees. Bees reportedly love it, so I'm going to give it a try this year.
The only thing I have heard about cutting for hay, is that grasses (sudan, johnsongrass, etc) shouldn't be cut or fed to livestock right after a freeze or in a heat stress state such as heat with drought. Don't know about clover, though.
 
#78 ·
>Bill, I wonder if the clover you are referring to is one of the Berseem clovers? There is a variety that is called "Big Bee" that I have read about. Berseem is a good clover for heavy soils in bottomland areas. It's not a great reseeder, so is normally used as an annual, and is a cool weather plant, but doesn't tolerate sustained freezing spells below 22 degrees.


Doesn't sound like that would work in Kansas, gets a little chilly here in January...



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Bullseye Bill
Smack dab in the middle of the country.
 
#79 ·
>>My concern is now I have been told that I need to be careful when to cut the clover for feed hay. That it will cause abortions in livestock if not cut and baled at the right time. Anyone know of this?

Yes, your right , but only when the sweet clover gets rained on and is a bit moldy. It is not worth the bother then. you have to be very carefull feeding at times becasue it will thin your livestocks blood, It must be rationed out with other feed to prevent this from happening...

Ian
 
#82 ·
i have had huban growing for two years now but would like to add the sweet white clover with the huban, my question is would the white sweet clover have a chance with the huban getting so tall? the huban i planted two seasons ago growes to at least three to four feet tall.my bees sure do work it good.by the way my huban has yellow and white blooms.
 
#85 ·
>BB and BC,
Huban is "white sweet clover", isn't it? Is the huban good at re-seeding itself? THANKS

Mine is all white. It produced a lot of blooms and I presume that it also produced a lot of seed. What I haven't found out yet is a definate answer if it is a perennial, biennial, or an annual.

I found yellow listed as a biennial, and white as a perennial, and one source listed the Huban as an annual, but then I find planting instructions that say to plant it in either fall or spring.

BC, does your huban come back from the roots?

Bill
 
#86 ·
my huban has the yellow and white blooms, weather it comes back from the roots or the seed i really can't say, but i am guessing its the seed because i take my brush hog raise it as high as it will go then mow it, that scaders it every where, then i disk it and then pull a harrow over that. i seeded the first year then used the method i just describe and got a good stan this past year. i have now done the same thing again. i planted mine in feb.
 
#87 ·
Bill, for what its worth: Since I live in a reasonably poplulated area without much open land around me, I seed where I can. For instance;

At night, I will seed the neighbors' lawns with Dutch White clover seed. Even though the bees aren't crazy about this short clover, It will survive the lawnmower and bloom prodigously.

I have seeded "wild areas" with sweet clover, both white and yellow. After doing a couple hundred pounds of seed over several years, I have found that the seedlings do NOT compete will with previously established growth (weeds, grass, etc.). The clover I mention needs to be seeded in cultivated soil to flourish.

Hairy Vetch: Now this is a seed that is voracious enough to compete with other establish growths. I have cast this seed next to roads, wild areas, parks, abandoned areas and they (vetch) seems to do quite well - even through last year's drought (surprisingly so). The vetch produces a plethora of purple flowers that the bees seem continually eager to work.

For me, low plants and bushes are OK but trees are where the action is. We are Black Locust and Tulip Poplar all the way here. The sound of the zillion bees working the locust during bloom is like nothing else. Standing under one of these trees and listening is amazing. Down side is that the blooms are easily susceptable to late freezes and strong wind. The poplar seems hardier.

I thought I read in an earlier post that the locust wood seems to rot easily. Don't know what wood was being referred to but I don't think it was black locust. This stuff is very weather resistant and lasts a long time in the elements. Why do you think it is known for making fence posts out of. I've even milled lumber out of it and made bee boxes. They've lasted longer than any other type wood boxes that I have bought or built in the past.

Nuff said.

Thanx.
 
#88 ·
Hi,
I'm a new beekeeper with a few questions.
I recently planted about 8 lbs of Ladino clover as well as orchard grasses around a newly constructed pond last Aug. I was wondering if anyone was familiar with Ladino clover (a white variation)as a necter source?
2nd, I have a large oregano cluster in my herb garden that the bees go crazy for. Not sure what variety of oregano but has many tiny white flowers that bloom from spring to fall. Is this a reliable source of necter or pollen?
Finally, I had bought a few buttonbush sapplings at our bee school auction last feb and planted in march. The buttonbush hasn't blommed this year and has grown to about 2'. I was wondering if this actually was a button bush because the leaves look so much like the hibiscus (rose of sharon) we planted in June. Are these related?
 
#89 ·
I tried Ladino clover this past year and had very poor germination, but I think bees work it well from what I have read. The buttonbush leavess do resemble hibiscus, imo. They usually bloom in the third or fourth year. If yours are about two feet tall, I would expect blooms next summer or in two years. I have some of them that grow wild here along the creek, and funny this is, I haven't seen any bees in the flowers. There must be something else blooming at the same time that the bees prefer. Bees do love oregano, but I don't know how good a source that is as far as amounts of nectar brought in. I do like seeing the bees in it, though, because many of the herbs seems to have some miticidal and disease-fighting properties for bees. I plant as many herbs as I can. Another thing my bees really loved this year was the catmint and catnip. Other favorites were lemon basil and sage.
 
#90 ·
Hi yall,
I ordered 5 stevia plants today and plan on growing them in a greenhouse (my sons agriculture project this semester) and take cuttings to start my spring plantings. I figure these 5 plants will give me 100 cuttings per plant to start my stevia crop next spring. Heres the info on it that i have. I think that the bees might go for it. What do yall think

Pic of plant




Stevia is a perennial shrub that grows up to 1 m tall and has leaves 2-3 cm long. It belongs to the Aster family, which is indigenous to the northern regions of South America; it is still found growing wild in the highlands of the Amambay and Iguacu districts (a border area between Brazil and Paraguay). It is estimated that as many as 200 species of Stevia are native to South America; however, no other Stevia plants have exhibited the same intensity of sweetness as S. rebaudiana. It is grown commercially in many parts of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Central America, Israel, Thailand, and China.
 
#91 ·
>I thought I read in an earlier post that the locust wood seems to rot easily. Don't know what wood was being referred to but I don't think it was black locust.


We have two types of locust on our property, Black, and the other I don't know the name of. This other type has four to nine inch thorns on it's trunk and branches. It is a hard wood but it does rot in only a couple of years when left on the ground. I have cut a lot of it for firewood and any left on the ground will turn pretty quick.

Unfortunatly, the cattle really like to eat the black locust and it only gets to survive in the fenced yard, so we don't have very many of those trees. I also don't get many chances to see it bloom either.

You devil you, night time seeding huh? I like that.

I'll be looking for some hairy vetch seed now.

Bill
 
#93 ·
those locust trees with the thorns. Sounds like honey locust of which there are 2 types. Those with thorns and the hi-bred that has no thorns. The 2 I have in my yard are loved by the bees when they bloom. The down side is all the 6 to 9 inch long seed pods that drop in the fall.
Clint

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Clinton Bemrose
just South of Lansing Michigan
 
#94 ·
>I had a relative years ago that was thrown off a bridge into a thick patch of those locust trees with the thorns. took them 9 hours to cut him out of that patch. Had to bury him closed casket


OUCH! Sorry for him. If you ever get stuck by one of those thorns you will notice that there is a chemical on it that will cause you much discomfort and it will take quite a long time for it to heal.

I would rather get stung by a bee than a thorn.

>The 2 I have in my yard are loved by the bees when they bloom. The down side is all the 6 to 9 inch long seed pods that drop in the fall.


That sounds like them, I haven't seen them bloom yet. I will have to keep an eye on them this spring.

Bill
 
#95 ·
I am not sure just how good Russian olive trees are for honey or pollen. In this area they are considered a weed. I do notice in the spring just about the time the dandilion slowes down these trees bloom, they have a very sweet smell and the bees are all over them. We have magpies here and in the winter they eat the russian olives and then spread them all over, hence the weed. If anyone is interest I can send them some seed.
 
#98 ·
Ok this is my first post here. I am a nurseryman and was a walking horse owner and breeder. Honey Locust have the longest thorns. Black Locust will not rot for many years but Honey Locust will not last when used as post. Black Locust post if put in the ground green and upright(as cut from tree) will sprout and root many times so your post becomes a bushy tree. About making animals sick, Clovers that are cut while holding seeds can kill horses by dehydration. It does not bother cattle as bad. The horses actually slobber themselves to death. This thought to be because of the bitter nature of the seed. The olives are a great food source but they are a problem. We planted the seeds to raise the liners for sale. As with many types of plants the seedlings do not all reach sellable size so you run a band digger under them and pull the ones that are big enough and leave the rest to the next year. Those that were left were a couple feet tall the next fall. Since they were now to big we decided to leave them for seed. Bad Idea that was as now we have them all over the farm. We try and keep everyone that is not in the row dug out. I wish I could talk my father into getting rid of that row of them. He collect the seeds and sells them to other nurserys. Since my father is unable to tend the farm and I can no longer do it myself we are planning on making everything pasture but the wild pears( chineese sand pears which are the root stock for grafting pears on too), dogwoods, and those olives. olives bring around 50cents a pound in the flesh. They are real easy to collect by laying plastic down and knocking them off with padded sticks.
 
#99 ·
>I am a nurseryman and was a walking horse owner and breeder. Honey Locust have the longest thorns. Black Locust will not rot for many years but Honey Locust will not last when used as post. Black Locust post if put in the ground green and upright(as cut from tree) will sprout and root many times so your post becomes a bushy tree. About making animals sick, Clovers that are cut while holding seeds can kill horses by dehydration. It does not bother cattle as bad. The horses actually slobber themselves to death.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

One question, do bees work the honey locust with the long spikes? We have determined that they do work the black locust (with small thorns), but how about the other?

Bill
 
#100 ·
I am new to bee keeping(first year of having a hive of my own). I forgot to mention that the hybred honey locust is a hybred with a locust I am not familuar with so it may produce something for the bees. As to planting for bees I have thought about tree farming for logs. Lumber prices just keep climbing. I am thinking of planting red maple, tulip popular, and wild cherry as it is getting real hard to find good logs of. Black Gum(tupiloe(sp)) does not make good logs and is slower growing than those I mentioned. I may consider planting black locust now as well. They do sell good for post which would make a quicker turn around than those being raised for logs. I will be planting some popular seeds this year. Popular can make logs in 20 to 25 years(some harvest them at 15 years but you make much more if you grow them larger. I am also looking into growing blueberries. They require some watering in our area but we have a couple of ponds to water out of.
 
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