What type of clover is best for honey bees?

White clover and crimson clover, with their relatively short florets are readily worked by honeybees with nectar being relatively easy to attain. Red clover has a longer floral tube, so nectar is not as accessible to honeybees.

What is alsike Clover good for?

Alsike clover fixes nitrogen and is a low growing species so potentially useful for undersowing beneath cash crops. Alsike will grow better on wetter and more acidic soils than other clovers including red clover.

Does Red Clover make good honey?

Years ago beekeeping friends (father and son) Oren and Dennie Best, told me that they make a good honey crop from red clovers, I was a bit skeptical (but I trusted their experience) because I learned in school that the red clover had too deep corollas for honey bees to reach.

Do bees like ladino clover?

The honey bee is the most important pollinator of white clover. The plant is highly attractive to bees (‘Ladino’ much less so than the intermediate or small types), and bees are likely to be found visiting the flowers to some extent wherever the plants are grown (Atwood 1943).

What clover produces the most honey?

white clover
Honey from white clover is considered by many to be the standard by which all other honeys are judged. White clover prefers cooler climates, but can tolerate a wide range of conditions. This perennial clover also makes a great additive in grasses and lawns. Produces small white flowers which bloom from spring to fall.

Is white clover good for honey bees?

White Clover Seed is perfect for ground cover or erosion control, and bees love the blossoms! Price Ea. This nitrogen-fixing, low-growing perennial is a favorite of bees, providing a great source of nectar. Beekeepers love white clover because it sprouts quickly and grows so dependably in all soils including clay.

Is alsike clover the same as red clover?

Alsike somewhat resembles red Clover with stems one to three feet long, but they are more-slender and more prostrate. Stems and leaves are smooth, and the flower heads are pink or white. Alsike Clover tillers profusely from the crown. The stem does not terminate in a flowering head but keeps on growing.

What is the difference between alsike clover and white clover?

Alsike Clover resembles Trifolium repens (White Clover), except its leaves develop from the stems rather than from runners in the ground, and there are no chevrons (white-markings) on its leaflets. Alsike Clover is usually somewhat taller than White Clover, and its flowerheads are usually more pinkish in appearance.

Will bees feed on red clover?

Remarkably, because the amount of nectar secreted by this Red clover is so abundant (more than in White or Alsike clovers), it sometimes fills the flower-tube, making it accessible by Honeybees too, and it may be a more important minor source of nectar than has been supposed by beekeepers.

What is the difference between ladino clover and white clover?

The term “white clover” is applied to the species in general, “Dutch clover” is often applied to intermediate varieties (but sometimes to smaller varieties), and “ladino clover” is applied to large varieties.

Which flower is best for honey?

The 7 best flowers to plant for bees

  1. Bee balm (Monarda spp.)
  2. White wild indigo (Baptisia alba)
  3. Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
  4. Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
  5. Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum)
  6. Marsh blazing star (Liatris spicata)
  7. Wrinkleleaf goldenrod (Solidago rugosa)

Which plant produces the best honey?

Some of the plants that are most attractive to bees and produce high quality honey are the flowers of blackberries, fruit and citrus trees, herbs (like rosemary, borage and sage), flowering bushes, clover and other wild flowers and, in the case of Monte-Bellaria, lavender.