If you had a 20 acre pasture to dedicate to your bees...

[bosco500]

What would you plant? We have some pasture that is not being used that I would love to plant for the bees, just not sure what to plant. We have a few cows (not in this field) so if it were something that could produce hay that would be an additional benefit. We will have 5 hives next year. Thanks for any ideas

[DutchBee]

What would you plant? We have some pasture that is not being used that I would love to plant for the bees, just not sure what to plant. We have a few cows (not in this field) so if it were something that could produce hay that would be an additional benefit. We will have 5 hives next year. Thanks for any ideas

We did that on 10 acres. We went with white sweet clover! Amazing results.

[CChampion]

I am planting clover this year also.

[linn]

Applemint. You should plant applemint. The bees love it. linn

[New Ky Beekeeper]

I suggest you plant white clover, red clover, alfalfa, and orchard grass. I would cut it for hay, but cut it a bit late to allow the red clover & alfalfa to bloom for at least a week. Your hay will not be as high quality, but all that blooming clover & alfalfa will blow the supers full off honey.

[Tom B]

Buckwheat and alfalfa, let the alfalfa bloom. Gradually convert to wildflower prairie.

[Gord]

Linden or basswood along the fencelines.
Clover in the field; it's great for the soil.
You'll love the honey from the linden/basswood.

[jadell]

I suggest you plant white clover, red clover, alfalfa, and orchard grass. I would cut it for hay, but cut it a bit late to allow the red clover & alfalfa to bloom for at least a week. Your hay will not be as high quality, but all that blooming clover & alfalfa will blow the supers full off honey.

I agree.

[bosco500]

Thanks for the great ideas guys. Lots of options

[Dodgerdoob]

Sweet clover is a biennial meaning you won't get any blooms the first year. It also has high levels of coumaphos, or something like that. It is an anti clotting agent that can be dangerous for livestock. Red clover isn't a good bee forage. Look at white dutch clover or even better an improved ladino clover.

[tsmullins]

What would you plant?

As other have said, Linden along the fencelnes and sweet clover. You could consider some thistle (although you probably would not have to plant thistle since it is very common) as well. Bees produce some very tasty hone from thistle and sweet clover. For some late fall forage, I would consider cultivating some stands of goldenrod and asters.

Also, try to fill some voids in your honey flows. In our area, we have a strong spring and early summer. Then it is tough going until the fall flowers bloom. And that is not very strong for us.

HTH,
Shane

[jim lyon]

Plant what thrives in your locality. What kinds of plants do you see bees working in the pastures in your area? A light sprinkling of sweet clover is excellant and won't harm cattle but won't bloom every year and dosent thrive in all soils and climates. Too heavy of a stand of alfalfa will bloat cattle but it typically does better in northern climates. A sprinkling of some type of Dutch or crimson clover is probably your best bet for a plant that works best for both cattle and bees. They are annual legumes the bees love and make for healthier grass as well.

[Joseph Clemens]

Sainfoin.

[Michael Palmer]

Plant what thrives in your locality.

Humbolt County, California?

[Rader Sidetrack]

Humbolt County, California?

Hmmm, if Michael is referring to growing a popular illegal herb in Humbolt County, it may not do much for your bees. The quote is from a site dedicated to homegrown MJ, from an individual that also claims to be a beekeeper.

I keep bees so give me a few seconds to explain the whole deal.

So the question has nothing to do with pollen, as this isn't in honey, it's with nectar. the real question is if you can get honey bees to pollinate marijuana plants. I'll tell you right now you can not. Bees to collect nectar from all kinds of plants, but they do not go to every type of plant. They are very specific as to the types of plants that they will pollinate and collect substances from. Nature, in turn, can be very specificly either for or against bees, depending on the plant in question. Almonds, for instance, only are polinated by honey bees, nothing else pollinates them. Apples are mainly pollinated by honey bees, but don't have to be. Sweat bees, carpenter bees, and other insects occasionally do their part. Pepper plants are not visited by honey bees. They do not provide much nectar for the bees collection needs, and likewise the pepper plant is pollinated by the wind. marijuana plants are pollinated by the wind as well. the bees are not interested in yoru MJ plant, will nto pollinate it, and will nto try to take it's nectar. It just won't happen, sorry.

Full thread here:
http://www.rollitup.org/advanced-mar...lse-place.html

A tip: Don't try this at home, kiddies!




For the record, I have no personal experience on this subject, and I do not hang out at the linked site! I just know how to use search ...

[Daniel Y]

So much for the party I had planned for my bees.

[sqkcrk]

What would you plant? We have some pasture that is not being used that I would love to plant for the bees, just not sure what to plant. We have a few cows (not in this field) so if it were something that could produce hay that would be an additional benefit. We will have 5 hives next year. Thanks for any ideas

I would plant and maintain the highest quality hay possible, sell it, and use the profit, if any, to fund my beekeeping. I bet you can find a horse farm nearby that would buy good horse hay from you.

Or you could lease it out to a farmer to help pay the Land Taxes.

Unless you don't need to be concerned about this, maintaining bee feed land is not profitable, not moneteraly so. Maybe you can afford other forms of profit. In which case, I take that as a sign that our economy is improving.

[jim lyon]

I wont fundamentally disagree with that Mark but the OP seemed to be looking for ideas of what plants might be planted in a pasture grazed by a few cows. My experience is that such lightly grazed pastures can be excellent sources of nectar as the cattle will never let many of these plants mature and go to seed. They can on occasion produce nectar all summer long while still giving the cows something to munch on.

[hpm08161947]

Flood it and make a swamp out of it. Swamps have real diversity. Bees like diversity. At least in this area, swamps always beat mono-crops.