I have tons of milkweed in the pasture…they are going to be happy little bees!
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Trip to the Garden centre today was two-fold.
Because I was on holiday in March/April I didn’t sort my garden for the coming of summer.
Been and upgraded my herb garden. As a trained Chef I like my fresh herbs but have discovered some of my favourite herbs, Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, are all beneficial to Bees. Instead of one or 2 plants I have planted whole Tubs of these in pots and they will be moved next to my hives when they arrive. Also some lavender (English not French), and Sweetcorn - I didn’t have time to put any in this year I try to do this before or at Easter generally.
It got me thinking about what else I need for my garden - Now I’m looking for plants to fill the ‘June-Gap’.
Yes this is new to me as well - I have loads of early winter plants because most are favourites, some summer, but there needs to be continuity of pollen for healthy Bees and as it is the Hive busy time for brood sufficient pollinating plants for Bees.
We need Variety for good health and so do our Bees
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@Valli I’ve spent time planting for bees, your links above are really useful. I have a couple of books by Maureen Little on creating a garden to attract and nurture bees, which may be interesting.
It’s helpful when garden centres have labels on their plants with bee friendly logo. I have found wall flower ‘bowles mauve’ to be a favourite, it flowers from late winter to late summer and good for the June gap, and very easy to take cuttings to bring on further plants.
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Yes I have some - lots of Bee friendly plants already in my garden - I’m going to propagate for more.
I have a really good book by “Which” about the best ways to propagate various trees, shrubs etc. I bought more herbs because I use so many and can’t keep up with my use and propagate.
Here is the current Book - Mine is 20 odd years old - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardening-Successful-Propagation-Consumer-Guides/dp/0852028857
@jenbee are you in the UK? we have a Facebook page that Lee Whitaker set up.
This is the one I have - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardening-Which-Guide-Successful-Propagation/dp/0340399813
I picked it up for £1 in a Charity shop
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@Valli yes I’m from Cornwall, I have joined Lee Whitakers FB page which will be great for us to share information, experiences etc. I’m a newbie so much to learn but looking forward to it.
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Our local beekeepers association had a speaker at our meeting last month who owns a nursery. He spoke about what native plants to use that attract bees and are drought tolerant, which is a major consideration in our area. Yesterday we went to his nursery and loaded up the truck with plants, which my son and I planted yesterday and today. We should have happy bees! You may want to talk to your own local beekeeping group about having such a speaker to a meeting. I know we all learned a great deal from him.
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For Australian beekeepers, the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation has produced a fantastic resource book, includes both the pollen and nectar charts for plants by climatic region.
https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/12-014
Enjoy!
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Yes, I do. I have a 5 ha of land with trees name kemiri sunan or chesnut and I wish to start planting bees, any one could give me a practical advice ?
Thanks a lot.
SS
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Could anyone point me in the direction of a good pollen visual guide or chart for Queensland. I’d like to be able to check it against a flowering calendar for my area to see if I can identify what the girls are foraging on.
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For those in the US, this forage map might prove helpful in determining nectar flows for your particular area.
http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/Honeybees/Forage_info.htm
Enjoy.
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This site gives good information on bee friendly plants. Also a lot of info about garden design. Hope you find it useful. https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/downloads/12-014
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Do you have other suitable additional forage/flow in the area to support the bees full time or will you need to move them after the chestnut season is over?
If the only thing in the area of any substance is the Chestnut trees it might be a better idea to contract with a commercial beekeeper to rent the hives for your season.
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I like to use as many nectar
/pollen plants as I can. Privet produces a very light honey almost like water. It is amazing to stand under them while the bees hum-buzz so loud that the world seems to vibrate. Back in '91 when I was a single mother, my son and I dug up the little privet trees from a field and planted them near the property line. Every year I am surprised how large they have grown. Privet flow is on in the southern US! I had to add more supers to the hives yesterday…Yippee!!! NOTE Privet is an invasive species (no wonder it was all over the field!). It must be constantly cut back & luckily the seedlings pull up easily.
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These are native to the USA? I thought they were invasives that naturalised?
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You know, you have a point. Just because they were growing wild in a field doesn’t mean they are native. I know there are different types of privet. I will have to do research on this. Thanks!
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We were told bees love berries, so we planted a bunch of Blackberry and Raspberry bushes along our fences. Plus the advantage is that we will have fruit to add to our Mead next year! Plus being in a semi rural area within the 5 mile fly radius of our bees we have a whole bunch of open prairie fields with wild flowers in them. We have seen several different colors of pollen returning to the hive already this year.
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After researching privets I learned most are imported & invasive. I am not sure which one I found but odds are it probably is invasive. So I added that note. Thank you for bringing up that question😊
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