I'm a beginner beekeeper and have my one hive so far on a farm where we also keep two donkeys. Last season it seemed that all of August was pretty much a dearth as far as the bees were concerned and since we have a nice unused field I was considering growing something to get them a bit of a flow that time of year. Since we also keep the donkeys I was wondering if I could use some kind of crop that would provide a good flow for the bees in August and then dry up and be a decent feed or at least something to make the "beds" for the donkeys.
Any ideas for a crop that fits my requirements:
- Blooms at the end of summer when the bees are in a dearth
- Ideally doesn't need much water but I have plenty of water to irrigate in August if needed
- Come fall, dries up and can be consumed by donkeys
I have horses and bees and I planted:
a horse pasture grass mixture that has:
Bluegrass
Timothy
A cool season grass (don't remember the name but it wasn't Brome)
Alfalfa
Then I planted:
yellow sweet clover
white sweet clover
white dutch clover
birdsfoot trefoil
chickory
In addition I planted some wildflowers:
goldenrod
joe pye weed
ironweed
asters
I also collect danelion seed from yards that let it go to seed and plant that every chance I get.
The chickory tends to be late and blooms for a long time even in a drought.
Thanks for all the ideas. I'll have to go through them and figure out what is feasible for our weather and particularly what is feasible for the donkeys.
Michael, do you happen to know if any of these are particularly rich in calories/protein? Donkies are desert animals and can only handle poorer feeds compared to horses. I'd like to be able to leave the donkeys out to pasture as much as possible, so ideally I'd like to have things that actually dry up after flowering. In a grass pasture I have to give them dry feed in the morning and only then set them loose on the pasture for a limited time, and I have to be careful in the spring because all the grasses have grown very fast and are highly caloric. I assume you don't have that issue with the horses.
Don't know a thing about donkeys but I do know that everybody in GA that has pasture for anything has at least one donkey for the coyotes. I'm sure few of them have the elaborate array of plants that Michael has but they are heavy in grasses and dutch clover and some sweet clover. Their donkeys are always in the pastures.
>Michael, do you happen to know if any of these are particularly rich in calories/protein? Donkies are desert animals and can only handle poorer feeds compared to horses.
Pretty much all the legumes as well as the chicory... maybe you should stick with just the chicory if you're concerned about too much protein and you want a late bloomer than can handle drought...
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