Spring beans for bees??

[biglongdarren]

Just received an email from a farmer who has spring beans in and wouldn't mind a few hives set near them, are they of any use to honey bees?
Cheers Darren

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Makes the fahrt something terrible I've found

 

[MuswellMetro]

Just received an email from a farmer who has spring beans in and wouldn't mind a few hives set near them, are they of any use to honey bees?
Cheers Darren

depends, , what i think he is saying is that he has planted one of the spring sown field beans, such as Fury , the problem with field beans is that although an excellent source of pollen (almost Black), it is difficult for honeybees to open the flowers unless you have lots of bumble bees around to cut into the flower

 

[Foxylad]

All my hives are in the middle of 120acres of field beans on heavy land.

There currently bringing in a commercial super a week. And after 2 weeks I added the third super on 6 hives yesterday.

Field bean honey in very light, clear and incredibly sweet. It doesn't crystallise if they don't bring in anything else with it. I may try blending some with OSR over winter.

It only flowers for a short time. I'm moving half to the limes as soon as the flow begins to die off.

 

[lorrick]

Hi Their
I am over in Suffolk and I have probably around 100 to 130 acres of beans around me at the moment, as you say they are bringing in a lot of honey at the moment nearly white in colour, I asked the farmer last week when would the Beans be stopping flowering, and he could not say ? as the weather is all over the place, but I did find out that any farm with roughly 140 acres or over of land now has to either grow 3 crops per year for bio diversity to stop farm growing wheat or barley in the same fields every year or plant up 2% of land with wildlife friendly plants either in a wildlife field or combining a wider headland around the field. Quite a few of the local farmers have said they will be growing beans next year. so something to watch out for.
Regards
Richard

 

[Teemore]

Darren, bees will get something from the beans: if I remember correctly, field beans have extra floral nectaries that the honeybees can access. Was it John Best that mailed you by any chance?

 

[JohnRoss]

Hi Darren, I got the same e-mail. I was thinking of dropping a hive up there myself but am not sure. Rathfriland is a little bit far for me at the moment. It is very tempting though.

JohnRoss

 

[betterbee]

verry good source of honey,get my main crop from it,keep in contact with farmer as some sprays can be deadly to the bees ,friend lost 4 hives last year,farmer says 30%increase in yield with bees so verry keen and always checks before spraying.go for it but be careful

 

[Tdf]

Hi Their
I am over in Suffolk and I have probably around 100 to 130 acres of beans around me at the moment, as you say they are bringing in a lot of honey at the moment nearly white in colour, I asked the farmer last week when would the Beans be stopping flowering, and he could not say ? as the weather is all over the place, but I did find out that any farm with roughly 140 acres or over of land now has to either grow 3 crops per year for bio diversity to stop farm growing wheat or barley in the same fields every year or plant up 2% of land with wildlife friendly plants either in a wildlife field or combining a wider headland around the field. Quite a few of the local farmers have said they will be growing beans next year. so something to watch out for.
Regards
Richard

a lot of lads are thinking of using it instead of osr because of poor prices.

 

[TOBY-3652]

I have 15 colonies on some and they are bringing a nice bit of honey in at the moment

 

[lorrick]

I have been told from two unrelated sources that you need Bumble Bees on Bean flowers to open them up so the Honey Bees can get in, as the Bumble Bee is stronger, and the petals are hard to push apart ?

 

[Teemore]

I have been told from two unrelated sources that you need Bumble Bees on Bean flowers to open them up so the Honey Bees can get in, as the Bumble Bee is stronger, and the petals are hard to push apart ?

The honeybees will exploit the extra floral nectaries present on field beans without any help from bumble bees. http://www.bee-craft.com/extra-floral-nectaries/