[WBVC]

Title says it all. We have lots of buttercup around...all in bloom. Will bees use them for nectar and/or pollen?

 

[Poverty Hill]

Hi Buttercups otherwise known as Ranunculus are poisonous to bees.... very lethal. You can read more here:

http://beeinformed.org/2012/05/ranunculus-poisoning/

 

[WBVC]

Oh dear

Our region is covered in them! I asked as I never see the bees on the buttercup. We can mow ours but there is buttercup in every fallow field and on every verge.

Somehow my bees seem to manage...perhaps they would do better without it.

 

[Poverty Hill]

We also have a lot of buttercup in our horse pastures. Fortunately, the bees seem to know they're a no-no and avoid them, I've seen them fly right by them to get to dutch clover.

 

[rsjohnson2u]

WBVC, I'm in your region. In Skagit county, we generally use buttercup bloom as the indicator of our nectar dearth. Most here in NW Washington use it to determine if syrup feed is needed until blackberries. A typical year is about three weeks of dearth from buttercups until berries, depending on weather.

 

[grozzie2]

I'm just across the water on the island. We saw the first buttercups last friday, they started replacing the dandies in some fields around us. My scale hive has put on 6lb since then, so the bees are still working something.