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What should you plant to help your beehives? For areas around Bryan-College Station, TX.

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Presentation on theme: "What should you plant to help your beehives? For areas around Bryan-College Station, TX."— Presentation transcript:

1 What should you plant to help your beehives? For areas around Bryan-College Station, TX

2 What, EXACTLY, are we trying to accomplish? Chase a “nectar flow”? This is primarily a concern for commercial beekeepers that will move their hives from one location to another Plant things in a garden to help with pollination (ie. Attract bees to your other garden plants)? This is primarily a concern of the “master gardener” group – whose focus is on their gardens, not their beehives (the purpose in THIS presentation is to focus on the beehives)

3 What, EXACTLY, are we trying to accomplish? Plant things in “acreage” (to help increase honey production)? The next 3 slides talk about this Plant things to help the bees in “tough times”? This is really the focus – and what (I feel) most beekeepers ought to be doing.

4 Planting for your bees: to help with honey production???? ….I used to do this – until I did the math Bees commonly travel 3 miles to gather pollen & nectar – and sometimes as much as 6 miles a 3 mile circle is 28.26 square miles (area = π r^ 2 ) 1 square mile is 640 acres 18,086 acres are in a circle w/ a 3 mile radius!!!

5 This is a 3 mile radius circle around my house…

6 Which means: Planting 10 acres to help with a nectar flow is an insignificant drop in the bucket! Exception: fruit orchards Either the nectar is there, or it’s not

7 Where we CAN do something to help: Planting things to help the bees in “tough times”? In Texas, we have 2 “dearth” times (when there is very low amount of nectar available for bees):  Summer (early July through mid September)  Winter  Low bee activity – first frost (~Nov) through mid-Feb(ish)  High bee activity – mid-Feb through end of March (this is THE most likely time for a hive to starve)

8 Planting for a Winter “Dearth” Mexican Plum trees (Prunus Mexicana)  Begin flowering in late Feb  FIRST real nectar source in our area  Relatively fast growing, gets up to 25’ tall  Partial shade to full sun  Fruit is “tart” (but good in jams & jellies) If you were going to plant only 1 thing, this should be it!

9 Mexican Plum trees (Prunus Mexicana)

10 Planting for a Winter “Dearth” Texas Persimmon trees (Diospyros texana)  Begin flowering in mid-late March  Usually 10-15’, but can get to 35’ tall  Very drought tolerant

11 Planting for a Winter “Dearth” Hawthorn trees (Crataegus texana)  Begin flowering in March & April  Small tree / large bush  Prefers “bottom land”  Branches have thorns…

12 Planting for a Summer “Dearth” Texas Lilac Trees (Vitex agnus-castus) also called “Chaste tree” or “Vitex tree”  Officially designated as a “Texas SuperStar”  Produces HUGE amount of pollen & nectar  Bloom from June until first frost in November  Prefers full sun & well drained soil  Can be grown as a bush or tree (depends on pruning)

13 Texas Lilac Trees (Vitex agnus-castus) aka “Chaste Tree”

14 Planting for a Summer “Dearth” Mexican Sage (Salvia leucantha )  Brushy shrub ~3-4’ tall (and wide)  Blooms summer through fall (usually after a rain or watering)  Provides good levels of both nectar & pollen  Very drought tolerant


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