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

8K views 18 replies 17 participants last post by  hpm08161947 
#1 ·
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
 
#5 ·
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.
 
#10 ·
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.
 
#11 ·
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
 
#12 ·
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.
 
#17 ·
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.
 
#18 ·
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.
 
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