A 'virtual' farm...?

[Mike a]

My first choice would be Lavender

Lovely flavour in the honey, other insects love it and you can sell it pretty much as it is.

More practical reasons

No need for expensive harvesting equipment, no need to resow every year or plow back in and hope it regrows.

 

[Haughton Honey]

Does viper's bugloss actually produce reasonable amounts of nectar though, given the right conditions?

I always envisaged it as a flower for bumble bees rather than honey bees.

 

[Rob55]

Would the returns from 80 hives stack up to the returns that could be had from 300 acres of barley, wheat, potatoes, etc?

 

[Haughton Honey]

Would the returns from 80 hives stack up to the returns that could be had from 300 acres of barley, wheat, potatoes, etc?

Good point - you'd have to lean towards crops that actually had an 'end market' also then I suspect.

Borage?

 

[Swarm]

Does viper's bugloss actually produce reasonable amounts of nectar though, given the right conditions?

I always envisaged it as a flower for bumble bees rather than honey bees.

Have plenty of honey bees on mine.

 

[Rob55]

I would have thought 300 acres of rape and a few hives would be the "practical" solution.

 

[Finman]

.
Put the whole land full of balsam and buy nutritients with all honey money what you get from 4kg/hive.

 

[Chris Ibbo]

hey ICANHOPIT are you thinking of selling a honey viagra? Brilliant idea you'd make millions lol