How much planting is required to make a difference

[CB008]

I have 4 hives in my garden and try to provide a good environment. I have planted over 50 lavender bushes, countless spring bulbs etc but I wonder whether any of this makes much difference to the honey bees. The lavenders are very popular with bumble bees (which is fine by me) but rarely have I ever seen one of the honey bees on anythig that I have specifically planted. Quite possibly there are more attractive plants nearby.

I am more than happy providing a better environemnt for all of natures inhabitants but woudl like, if possible, to encourgae my honey bees as well.

 

[MandF]

we have been planting a few bee-friendly plants here and there in our garden. We get a few of our bees on each of them, I would be surprised if you didnt get hundreds of yours on 50 lavender bushes.

All fairly insignificant in the overall scheme of things, but still makes it feel worthwhile I think.

Are they are all the same lavender incidentally?

 

[CB008]

we have been planting a few bee-friendly plants here and there in our garden. We get a few of our bees on each of them, I would be surprised if you didnt get hundreds of yours on 50 lavender bushes.

All fairly insignificant in the overall scheme of things, but still makes it feel worthwhile I think.

Are they are all the same lavender incidentally?

A few different types of laveneder although the few fancy French ones seemed to have expired in the recent cold spell. I think my bees always find brambles of ivy or something else more attractive. I once saw some honey bees on a flowering fruit tree and the odd one on a crocus. The Lavender is always alive with bumbles as are all of my vegetables. We do have lots of OSR close by however

 

[Finman]

.
An adult hives has 30 000 foragers. One forager can handle your all lavandula bushes during day.
Flowers cannot exrecete nectar so quickly as bees visit in flowers.

 

[CB008]

.
An adult hives has 30 000 foragers. One forager can handle your all lavandula bushes during day.
Flowers cannot exrecete nectar so quickly as bees visit in flowers.

Thanks - that probaly explains it

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you plant flowers that bloom when fewer others do you'll do a better job of providing for your bees.
We have millions of snowdrops here and a few huge pussy willows and while I did plant about 2K crocuses 2 years ago I won't bother with more early forage.
The sedums flowering in late autumn are a different matter. They are covered in bees on a sunny day so I am planting up a sunny south facing bank with them. The joy is that they are wonderfully easy to propagate.

 

[Easy Beesy]

I thought lavender needed bees with long tongues to reach the nectar - maybe you have short-tongued bees?

 

[CB008]

The aubretia attracts some solitary bees with a really long proboscis which are a great sight to behold

 

[Finman]

. They are covered in bees on a sunny day so I am planting up a sunny south facing bank with them. The joy is that they are wonderfully easy to propagate.

reason is that bees have not other flowers.

In botnical garden I looked Linaria repens planting. It was one square metre. It had 20 bumble bees.

.

 

[Erichalfbee]

reason is that bees have not other flowers.



.

Exactly my point.
If you want to attract bees to your garden then plant flowers that bloom when little else does
When does Linaria bloom and how easy is it to grow? Must go and have a look.

 

[Finman]

.
I play with sedums too here. We have lots cliffs in woods. They have sedums. I have fertilized them and they like especially calsium.

When i move couple of plants, they make next Autumn thousands of seeds.

 

[REDWOOD]

Hi, No honey bees on my lavender only the ice plants

 

[peteinwilts]

If you want to attract bees to your garden then plant flowers that bloom when little else does

a couple of years ago I seeded in pots, planted out, nurtured and had an all out war on slugs, by growing several hundred sunflowers near my hives.

They were completely ignored by my bees as they were too buzzy collecting forage from more 'interesting' plants.
The bumbles and butterflys were very happy to harvest them though.

Last year my borage flowered until very late and was very popular!

 

[oliver90owner]

Add to this lot that the bees are less likely to forage close around the hive - they are probably 'wired' for this over many millenia.

Two main reasons. Cleansing flights are generally relatively short and the unwanted attraction of predators.

RAB

 

[Into the lions den]

I have planted over 50 lavender bushes,.

Lavender has a TOTAL nectar potential, *under optimum conditions*, of between 100 and 200 Kg per hectare..thats 100m x 100m. (Eva Crane) 10,000m2.

50 plants at say half a metre apart? ......12.5m2

So total nectar potential, under ideal conditions (which will be rare) is 187.5g once the stand is solid and mature. From which we have to take the proportion the bees themselves will eat of what they harvest, probably not less than 50%, so lets say 95g of honey? Split over 4 hives? About 24g per hive, if all else is perfect. Enough to let you smell it in the hive perhaps but nothing more. To take any kind of honey yield from the hives you will need to plant 1 to 2 hectares, and try to keep neighbouring bees away...........

 

[susbees]

Hi, No honey bees on my lavender only the ice plants

Quite so, bees don't touch our three sorts of lavender. Mind the honey bees were edged out by large numbers of butterflies on the sedums last October. Had to retire to the ivy...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Watching Sarah raven on tele last night. Interesting to see how high in sugar some nectar was. **** was over 70% and my ****'s are always busy with bees in the sunshine.My neighbour's huge cotoneaster is always buzzing when in flower. That comes in at 50% and even the simple dahlia is 35%.
OK, I can see that this will vary from garden to garden and on the weather etc but it gives a guide.

 

[Cazza]

Watching Sarah raven on tele last night. Interesting to see how high in sugar some nectar was. **** was over 70% and my ****'s are always busy with bees in the sunshine.My neighbour's huge cotoneaster is always buzzing when in flower. That comes in at 50% and even the simple dahlia is 35%.
OK, I can see that this will vary from garden to garden and on the weather etc but it gives a guide.

Could I use my honey refractometer to measure in the same way. Presumably it's the same instrument as used on the programme?

Cazza

 

[Finman]

.
Some years ago we had a very dry summer. I had 4 medium size hives on rape fields which were about 50 hectares. Rape gove only 20 kg honey per hive. At same time poplars had huge amount aphids and sugar covered leaves gove better yield.

To trust on one plant specie is dangerous. One specie blooms often 1-3 weeks and summer is 3-4 months in Uk. Our yield summer is only 2 months.

July is often potentially good mut hives are not yet in foraging condition.

 

[oliver90owner]

Could I use my honey refractometer to measure in the same way. Presumably it's the same instrument as used on the programme?

Similar, but not the same. Think 'range'.

RAB