Beans and more Beans
But do they make honey? Seems like every farmer in my local area this year has gone to wheat followed by soybeans. Not sure why they have chosen this planting schedule, but my typical cotton crop is a gone for this year.
What's the general consensus on honey yields from soybeans?
My experience with soybeans is they do not produce a honey crop. I would think you may get pollen, but no over abundance of nectar.
Some have said it depends on the type of soybean. The fields around my yard have went to soybeans, and I have not seen a crop from them.
The deer love them, thats all I can tell from wildlife liking them,
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
My guess would be that wheat has gone way up, from 5 to 11+ dollars per bushel. Soybeans have gone from 6 - 13+ dollars a bushel. If it's a good year you can get 100 bushel per acre wheat and 55 bushel beans. With double crops you get most of the money before the seed inputs and fertalizer expenses catch up with the markets.
My first year in beekeeping had my hive on the edge of a soybean field. Soybean and corn are the biggest crop in my area. I have read somewhere, and I believe it was on here, that nectar flow from soybean depends greatly on the variety planted by the farmer. As I was eluding to in my first sentance, I harvested 77 lbs. of surplus from my hive that first year. It was light colored and exceptional. Several beekeepers in the area also get a pretty good harvest off of soybean.
If you see me runnin' you'd better keep up!
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EVERYTHING around here is planted in corn.
If anyone knows, I'd like to learn which soybean varietys are best for honey!
I also wonder about filling a hive with the soy flower scent to increase pollination during the right time of year. If it just made a bushel per acre increase I'd be able to pay for all my hives. Does such a scent exist on the market?
Although the bees can benefit from the beans, I don't think the beans benefit from the bees. I don't think pollination would make a difference.Originally Posted by danameric
>But do they make honey?
Some years, a big crop. Some years, nothing.
Michael Bush bushfarms.com/bees.htm "Everything works if you let it."
My book: ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
Any idea as to why it is so variable? Cultivar, conditions, both, other??
Bees will produce honey from soybeans,but tempature and humidity is a real important factor.
I asked a soybean specialist for the state of Iowa about nectar production a few years back. All I got was a blank stare. Then "Just plant rape."
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