birdsfoot trefoil for bees?

[pp270]

Has anyone planted birdsfoot trefoil for their honeybees? Is so do they work it and does it produce good honey?

[Adrian Quiney WI]

It's a fantastic plant, and a consistent honey plant. It blooms most of the summer. I read somewhere, I think on Kirk Webster's site that it was planted deliberately long ago as a cattle feed. It grows in the ditches around here. If you have the resources to plant a lot of it go for it!

[Michael Bush]

>Has anyone planted birdsfoot trefoil for their honeybees?

Yes.

> Is so do they work it

Yes.

>and does it produce good honey?

I think so, but a lot of other things are blooming at the same time, so I can't say I know exactly what it tastes like... but I love it. It even does well when mowed like in your yard as does white dutch clover.

[Ben Franklin]

My road sides are covered with it, and I have asked the road department not to mow. I like the fact that it blooms most of the summer.

[Dave Burrup]

We planted it for the first time this spring. It is unbelievably slow establishing, so be prepared to weed. It is a very slow growing weak seedling.
Dave

[Ben Franklin]

Dave did you plant it with anything else? Legumes sometimes need a cover crop, like annual rye?

[Moccasin]

Sometimes a plant will grow well in one part of the country but not another. Also some places it will yield nectar and other places none. Goldenrod does nothing in my part of the Ozarks but is a major Fall producer elsewhere. Sue Hubbel a famous bee author remarked about Goldenrod not yielding here in my part of the country. I could not get Birdsfoot trefoil to grow in my pastures. I am trying sweet clover.

[Ben Franklin]

Moccasin: If you have well drained soil try some alfalfa.