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Author Topic: Do bees like daffodils  (Read 12030 times)

Offline malachii

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Do bees like daffodils
« on: May 25, 2011, 10:13:41 am »
A friend of mine lives next door to a daffodil farm and offered me a space to put some of my hives there.  Do bees like daffodils and if so - what sort of honey does it make?

malachii

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Do bees like daffodils
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2011, 01:58:32 pm »
I've not seen bees on my daffodils, not that I have all that many of them.  That time of year they are on the crocuses, though...

Even if bees to forage on daffodils, they are typically one of the earliest flowers, and because they are so early it is unlikely that you'd get any extra honey off them, for 2 reasons...1) population is the lowest then, and 2) because the early honey will go to building up the hive and brood production.

The bigger question to me would be if there is plenty of other non-daffodil flowers and forage in the area.  The flowering time on daffodils is short so you need something blooming the rest of the summer for the bees to produce any surplus.
Rick

Offline tina

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Re: Do bees like daffodils
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2011, 02:03:38 am »
this is a quote from the peace bee farm blog  "Daffodils are early-blooming perennial flowers that do not often attract honey bees. However, this week I found large numbers of bees foraging for pollen in daffodils. These flowers marked the location of a long-abandoned home site in the margin of the woods. The bees would fly directly into the large bell of the flowers’ coronas and emerge with pollen."         
 

Offline Grieth

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Re: Do bees like daffodils
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2011, 03:16:30 am »
I read that as most are now the result of years of breeding for bloom quality, some have little or no nectar. 
"The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings”
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Offline AllenF

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Re: Do bees like daffodils
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2011, 10:33:57 pm »
But they are nice to look at.

Offline Grieth

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Re: Do bees like daffodils
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2011, 09:05:55 am »
Especially when there is 'a host of golden daffodils'.
"The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings”
Lewis Carroll

 

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