Thanks for the replies everybody. I've got a lot of the other plants growing around me...plenty of the wild blackberry, wild cherry, china berry, holly...but most of those finishes up blooming in the spring don't they? I was just curious that if the colony grows in size from the bounty of food during the honey flow and then the bumper crop goes away if they might be overpopulated for the remaining forage...but like David mentioned, those ladies are workaholics (or thieves<grin>).
Currently the crapemyrtle is in full bloom. I had read where the white tended to draw bees better than the pink/lavenders. I have all pink/lavender around the house but a friend of mind has a nice roadside flower garden that is on my way to work and it has several nice whites crapemyrtles in it. I stopped the other day and checked them...plenty of bees of several kinds. Among the bees there were honeybees working them....something I haven't seen around my house in YEARS. I even pinpointed which of her trees had the heaviest bee population and I noticed one tree had so low limbs/suckers that were laying towards the ground (probably need pruning soon! :) ). Smelling of the whites I found that they had a much more fragrant smell than the pinks and lavenders that are around my house. I'm going to see if I can get some cuttings from her.
Anyhow, I've been looking everywhere I go to find stuff still blooming. Not a lot this time of year, but still I happen upon something all along...the crapemyrtle is the predominate flowering plant right now. sc-bee, you're right...sometimes things are right in front of our eyes...kinda like picking tomato worms, you look and look and look and suddenly there's a giant one right in front of your nose!
Allen, that is an interesting map...I've bookmarked the site. There are lots of plants on it that are around here so I should be in pretty good shape. The sad thing is that row-crop farming around here has probably sunk to 10-20 percent of where it once was...looks like corn is a predominate crop right now (ethanol, I presume ;( ) We've got a lot of open hayfield that is predominately bahia grass and weed (thistle, milkweeds, you name it), I know that will be pretty good in the spring. What about pine trees (there's a lot)...are they good/bad/neutral in helping honey production or taste?
Thanks for the help,
Ed