Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Papi on February 08, 2011, 04:07:31 pm
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Looking for plant in Colo. that maybe good for honeybees? Looking around at what I have growing in the wild in wet years and a new plan in the dry years, and looking for names that I don't have to have a collage degree to read the name or a degree in lation.
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In "American Honey Plants" the plants are listed by common name and the latin names are also given. For Colorado they list rosin weed but say it gives low grade honey, narcissus, parsley and prairie clover, wild onion, dandelion, canteloupe, sunflowers, mentzelia, lupines, loco weed, white clematis, willow, wild currant, red gaura or ragged lady, aside alfalfa and fruit trees. As mentioned by others this is a great book!
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Papi,
On this page is a few links that may help. The lady bird johnson link is very useful.
http://www.pennapic.org/linksbeenews.html (http://www.pennapic.org/linksbeenews.html)
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Kaisa forgot to give one good detail:
"American Honey Plants" can be found free on google books. Just go to google pull down the more tab, click books and search "American Honey Plants" and you will have enough info on honey plants to keep you busy for awhile.
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Liatris is one of the favorite plants of my bees and the wild bees in my yard. However, I have not seen it mentioned in any book or list of "bee plants". I can't figure that one out!
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Common names for plants can be dangerous. There are many plants that have multiple common names. There are many common names that describe two or more very different plants.
You don't have to learn a whole new language to deal with the Latin names - just two words for each plant. If you know someone as 'Bubba' it isn't that hard to also learn that he is also Jim Willis or Daniel Smith. Lots of Bubbas running around these parts, could cause some confusion.
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When I was in Colorado, I had a lot of luck with Sweet Clover. It was not my entire nectar source, but a nice supplement to what the bees found elsewhere. I've been moved away for years, now, so I honestly can't really remember everything they foraged...
I would, however, recommend the book "The Hive and the Honey Bee." It breaks down the nectar sources for the entire country into regions, includes common and scientific names, as well as anticipated flowering dates. I don't have my copy with me at the moment or I would look it up for you, but it's worth a purchase anyway. Tons of useful information on every aspect of beekeeping, honey plants included.
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Okay... I grabbed my book. The nectar and pollen plant table is 47 pages long, so I'll just touch on a few plants for your region...
Maple
Box Elder
Thistles
Sunflower
Goldenrod
Dandelion
Rocky Mountain Bee Plant (go figure!)
snowberry/Waxberry
Watermelon, honeydew, cucumber, etc...
Alfalfa
Sweet Clover
Black Locust
Vetch
White/Dutch Clover
Corn
Smartweed
The list continues, but most of these grow wild around there. The others are either commonly cultivated or well-suited to your area. Hope this helps a little!