Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Dcats]

I'm pretty new at this, and have done a lot of reading to find out what is good plants for my bee's. I have about 4 acres of front yard with a lot of different wild flowers and Clover in it, when aloud it to grow. I use to be a stickler for cutting my yard. Now that I have my bee's I have let it grow. I read that 1 acre of clover can produce 100 lbs of honey. And I have watched my little girls go crazy on it.
I was wondering if any one can tell me how often you should mow to get new flowers to grow. I'm guessing that the pollen is used up after a bit? And I know cutting clover will make it produce new blooms.

[J Smith]

I usually wait until the blooms start dying back. With white clover that is.
Depends on your growing season and how high you can stand to let the rest of the grasses getting before your key start hand for the mower starts twitching.

Mow late in the evening or early in the morning to prevent mowing up too many foraging bees.

[Dcats]

Thank you J Smith. Will do just that.

[catchercradle]

And with red clover, only longer tailed bees can reach the nectar with the initial flowering. However after cutting when it flowers again the bees can use it.

[Notyouraveragebeek]

If you wait till the flowers die back, they will have gone to seed... cutting at this point helps to increase the clover in your yard. While it's not necessarily good for your bare feet, it's great for the ladies!

You may want to make sure you have Plantain weed in your yard as well, as that really helps when you inadvertently step on one! Mash up the leaves and put it on the sting... my wife stepped on one last night and was amazed at my medical skills after I applied that to her toe

[CharlieBnoobee]

[catchercradle]

[madasafish]

50 stings a year gives you immunity to bee stings...