Clover

[macow]

Hi Folks,
I have had an offer of putting my bees on clover. The clover is a mix of red and white but mainly red. Is this any use?

Regards

Mark

 

[justme]

Hi Folks,
I have had an offer of putting my bees on clover. The clover is a mix of red and white but mainly red. Is this any use?

Regards

Mark

White clover yes, but I believe it depends on the weather, needs to be warm, very warm for UK summer? Red clover, also yes but not the first flush of flower as access too small for honey bees, good for bumbles.

 

[Midland Beek]

You get white/Dutch clover, you get red clover, and you get crimson/Alsike clover. I believe they all flower at different times. Bees will work clover but there is rarely the weather or the quantity of it in the UK to give what you would call a significant flow. Putting bees on OSR or sunflower or heather in the UK is worth it, but perhaps not clover.

 

[peteinwilts]

my bees are sat on quite a few acres that had NZ white clover that was planted in the 70's.
as the fields are only grazed once a year, they have a good oppertunity to spread.
it is so abundant in summer that you can't help treading on it whilst walking across the fields to the hives.

As the surrounding area has an abundance of other wild forage, i cannot comment whether it is the clover that makes the honey taste so good

We have quite a bit of red clover also. i believe the bees forage the smaller flowers (I certainly have seen honey bees on it!), and beleive carnolians will bit through the flower to get to the nectar

 

[aberreef]

I had a nice patch of white clover ont he field last year and the bees were all over it. While it was flowering they brought a good amount of nectar in too, but promptly ate it all when the weather changed

 

[Leigh]

I've had my bees on 40 acres of white clover for the last two years....both summers were too cold when the clover was in flower. If there is plenty of it, it is a good crop (apparently!) when the daytime temp is above 21C - below that, it doesn't yield.

Maybe this summer will be the one!

 

[Haughton Honey]

Every one in four years are, on average, apparently good clover years.....

 

[Finman]

.
I think that modern red clovers are breeded so that they grow continuously and they do not secrete nectar. Very few bees in red clover even if weather is splended and and thé moisture of soil is good.

red clover pollen is important in late summer when other flowers are away.

 

[johna]

The problem with red clover is that the corolla of the flower is too deep for most bees to reach the nectar.Bumble bees have longer tongues so can forage the nectar.White clover has a shorter corolla and so can be foraged by "standard" honey bees.The caucasian bee has a longer tongue and used to be called "the clover bee" and could forage the red.These are no longer "fashionable" bees and so are not kept by preference by "modern" beekeepers.They have a habit of propolising everything in sight and would reduce hive entrances to a series of small holes with propolis.