Clover

[Poly Hive]

That will happen but if your bumble colony is 500 strong and the bees are at 50k there is a wee inbalnce is there not?

PH

 

[jean]

Yes, that would be a little imbalance. If those are the figures. But red clover does produce more nectar over a longer period than white clover, so if the flower is pierced, the honeybees can return. Anyway I'm not talking about fields of clover, just fields of wild flowers of which clover forms a part.

 

[Geoff]

it isn't!! We mowed the fields over the space of a few weeks and have big swathes of white and pink already...

I think I have heard of clover blooming after a silage cut has been made. On some fields near here that were a bit weedy they have cut it using a mulcher and the clover has really come back into bloom. Anyone know the colour of its pollen?
With regard to red clover I read recently that a type of honeybee had been deliberately introduced into a country because it had a longer tongue and could exploit the longer tube of red clover. I think it might have been New Zealand and the Italian bee.

 

[FenBee]

With regard to red clover I read recently that a type of honeybee had been deliberately introduced into a country because it had a longer tongue and could exploit the longer tube of red clover. I think it might have been New Zealand and the Italian bee.

No Geoff, I think you are referring to a bumblebee, the short haired bumble that was sent to New Zealand in the 19th Century to pollinate the red clover, the red clover being good for beef cattle. This bumblebee is now extinct in the UK, so they are being reintroduced from NZ. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/01/wildlife-conservation

 

[Hivemaker.]

Carniolan and caucasian have the longest tongue,and are well adapted to working clover.

 

[Geoff]

No Geoff, I think you are referring to a bumblebee, the short haired bumble that was sent to New Zealand in the 19th Century to pollinate the red clover, the red clover being good for beef cattle. This bumblebee is now extinct in the UK, so they are being reintroduced from NZ. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/01/wildlife-conservation

Yep you are right, I am confusing my reading. What i had also read was that one of the reasons the Italian bee became dominant in Denmark was because it was good at pollinating red clover. It was an account of the attempt to isolate colonies of Apies m m to preserve biodiversity and to prevent just one Pan European bee developing.