Thoughts on Clover

[MissouriExile]

I have lost all three of my bee hives for the second time last year. I don't plan to restock untill we find out what is killing them.

I've been researching this "Hive Collapse" thing and there is some indication that using "Top Bar Hives" will ease the problem. The Top Bar Hives are simple to construct at home from plans on the internet. They do not produce as much honey but are said to be better than Langstrom hives for bee health. Much, much cheaper setup.

Going to try them this spring on my clover.

Jon

 

[alabama]

Let us know how iut works.

 

[MissouriExile]

seems I heard that only bumble bees can pollinate clover. Honey bees don't have a long enough proboscis???

Clover honey doesn;t come from bumblebees

As I said I have been researching bees on clover for a while. I received this yesterday.

biobee
Site Admin


Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 179

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:09 am Post subject: red clover

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Good to have you here, Jon. I hope you find this a helpful place - I think you will.

Just an observation on what you said about planting red clover: as a general rule, honeybees prefer white clover, as their probosces are too short to easily reach the nectar in red clover, so you might want to consider planting a mix.
Good luck, and we hope to see you here with progress reports!
_________________
The Barefoot Beekeeper

Back to top

I can provide a link to this forum if anyone is interested.

Jon

 

[George Monk]

Honeybees can and should be used to increase pollination of red clover. The notion that honey bees do not pollinate red clover because it has deeper florets than other legumes is false. Pollination of the flower occurs on each visit of the bee regardless of whether it gets nectar.

I have been mislead. http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/a ... g04638.htm

 

[MissouriExile]

Honeybees can and should be used to increase pollination of red clover. The notion that honey bees do not pollinate red clover because it has deeper florets than other legumes is false. Pollination of the flower occurs on each visit of the bee regardless of whether it gets nectar.

I have been mislead. http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/a ... g04638.htm

George;

Thanks for the link and information. I guess it goes to show how important perspective is. The bee forum guy was addressing the issue from a bee keepers perspective. He is thinking in terms of how much honey is generated. In addition he does say that bees "prefer" white clover to red.

There was no intent to mislead.

Jon

 

[dun]

In addition he does say that bees "prefer" white clover to red.

As busy as they are, unless someone had a pure stand of white I would think that they would hit the red just as hard. They do here, but we have mostly red. There also isn;t a bee/honey industry around here so all we have are wild bees.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Where did you get your copy of "Texas field and farm seed planting guide"? I did a google search and found no matches.

A peer at work gave it to me. Not really sure where he got it. The source (of info I provided) is page 143, which is in Section 9 if you find one. The cover is gone from it so I don't know the publisher. But I'll see if he has any info on how he got it.

 

[birdog]

Where did you get your copy of "Texas field and farm seed planting guide"? I did a google search and found no matches.

A peer at work gave it to me. Not really sure where he got it. The source (of info I provided) is page 143, which is in Section 9 if you find one. The cover is gone from it so I don't know the publisher. But I'll see if he has any info on how he got it.

Thanks Backhoe

 

[rockridgecattle]

our bees love red and white clover. The also love alfalfa. The clover, both kinds are their top pick, but boy they are everywhere.
We have one pasture they really love. (it's not far from the hives) There is red, white and yellow clover in there. That pasture has done really well.