Flowers for bees

A place for bee-ginners to ask questions and receive answers from experienced beekeepers.
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lester1
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Joined: July 18th, 2017, 6:52 pm

Flowers for bees

Unread post by lester1 »

Is there a flower or anything I can plant at this time of year for bees in lower South Carolina. I'm trying to cut back on so much sugar water as they are consuming quiet a bit.
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BadBeeKeeper
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Joined: April 2nd, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: Penobsot County, Maine

Re: Flowers for bees

Unread post by BadBeeKeeper »

I doubt it, and even if there were something, you probably wouldn't be able to plant enough of it to matter unless you have a bunch of acres of land and a tractor...and anything you plant now isn't going to produce flowers for some time...

Sugar is fairly cheap...much cheaper than planting acres of something.
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lester1
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Re: Flowers for bees

Unread post by lester1 »

Thank you for the reply.
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Biermann
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Joined: August 23rd, 2015, 4:38 pm
Location: Vauxhall, Alberta

Re: Flowers for bees

Unread post by Biermann »

Hello,

I like to disagree, but every area is different. For us, the growing season goes from mid April to October, with frost-free between mid May to (if I knew) mid August or Mid October.

I am a farmer and seed grower, so rotation is important in my fields. Luckily, I have one neighbor who ranches kind-of organic and has a good weed spectrum in his fields with lots and lots of dandelions in spring and sweet clover to produce the best tasting honey I have ever tasted. One other fellow growth seed alfalfa, hopefully for one more year and he fills my supers from June to August. I grow mustard for seed every year on a small strip and a small strip late seeded buckwheat. The mustard is done now, the buckwheat just beginning and once my spring barley is off, later this coming week, I will seed 12 acres of phacelia (California bluebell or phacelia tanacetifolia) this will start flowering in late August and will carry-on until the frost kills it. The nice thing with phacelia is that it is very easy to kill as volunteer in any following crop, expect in mustard where the seed is so small that it is easily cleaned out. It needs water and about 40-50 lbs/acre N. We are on irrigated land, so water is not an issue.
It does not mean I dont use sugar to winterize my hives, it just gives them more to work on and makes me happy when in October, they still come in loaded with pollen.

So, we always have options. I started beekeeping late in my busy life, I dont know why, it just never sparked till late, but now I wished every farmer would have four bee hives, it changes once perspective and a weed four years ago is not the same weed anymore today.

Cheers, and keep growing flowers for your girls!

Joerg
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