OSU Honey Bee Lab

Honey bees and plants have a special relationship. Each benefits the other. Flowering plants provide food for honey bees; in turn, bees provide pollination for many plants, enabling them to reproduce.

Honey bees visit flowers to collect pollen and nectar for food. Pollen is essential to bees because it is their only natural source of protein. Without it, colonies would be unable to produce new bees and would eventually die. Nectar is the carbohydrate portion of the honey bee's food and is the raw material of honey. Bees convert nectar into honey by adding an enzyme which breaks down the complex sugars into simple sugars. During this time bees reduce the moisture content of nectar to less than 18 percent by fanning air through the hive. Honey bees also require water in addition to pollen and nectar for their survival.

To produce honey successfully, you must have your honey bee colonies at peak strength when the major nectar producing plants in your area begin to bloom. To properly manage honey bee colonies so that their populations will increase and peak at the correct time, you must have a working knowledge of the nectar and pollen producing plants in the vicinity of your apiaries. This knowledge will enable you to determine when to stimulate brood production, add supers, use swarm control measures, harvest honey, requeen, prepare colonies for winter, and locate the most profitable apiary sites. If left on their own, most honey bee colonies don't begin increasing their populations rapidly until the major nectar flow starts. As a result, the nectar flow is usually over before the colonies are strong enough to produce a surplus of honey.

Honey bees may be kept anywhere in Ohio because there are enough nectar and pollen producing plants within flight range to produce some surplus honey. However, apiaries only a few miles apart are often found to produce honey crops varying considerably in size. Therefore, greater production and profit may result if you give more attention to kinds and numbers of nectar and pollen producing plants in any given area may change considerably over a period of years. These changes may be brought about by changes in agricultural crops and practices, rainfall levels, flood control projects and urban development.

Beginners in beekeeping frequently ask questions about growing crops or plants specifically for honey production. In general, it is not economically practical to grow a crop for the honey bees alone. Beekeepers are largely dependent on cultivated crops grown for other purposes or on wild plants. However, under certain conditions, it may be advantageous for beekeepers to use certain nectar and pollen producing plants in landscaping their home grounds and to plant certain crops on idle land. Either case would require selection of specific plants or crops adapted to, and suitable for, specific locations and situations.

The Apiary Location

The ideal location for your apiary would be an area free of hazardous insecticides, and would contain an abundance of nectar and pollen producing plants blooming in succession through the spring, summer, and fall. Honey color and flavor are determined by the plant or plants from which the bees collect nectar. To produce honey for your table or the market, your bees must have access to an abundance of plants yielding large amounts of nectar that will make a high quality, table grade honey.

Nectar production and secretion are affected by many factors, such as fertility, soil moisture and acidity, altitude, latitude, length of day, the number of hours of sunlight per day, and weather.

Where bees gather nectar from several sources, including a variety of wildflowers, honey is usually dark with a strong flavor. This is generally the case with the fall nectar flow, which usually yields a dark, strong flavored honey that is not preferred by most consumers. However, this honey is usually suitable for wintering bees. Golden rod and asters are two fall-blooming plants that may yield such honey.

There are many other minor plants which are excellent for nectar and are good sources of pollen. These may be an important factor in the success of beekeeping in a particular area. Table 1 provides a list of some major nectar and pollen producing plants of Ohio.

Observe your bees closely to learn the plants from which they collect nectar and pollen. Keep records of dates when these plants bloom, because there is variation in the dates from one section of the state to another and also some variation from year to year. After a few years you will know when to expect your greatest surplus honey storage and what quality of honey to expect from various nectar sources.

Honeydew

Various kinds of insects, especially certain aphids, suck large quantities of sap from trees and other plants in order to obtain sufficient food nutrients. In so doing, they often obtain far more sugar and liquid that they can possibly use and they discharge the excess from their bodies. This sweet fluid is known as honeydew. Sometimes the insects are so numerous that the honeydew falls to the ground like a fine mist of rain. When nectar producing plants are scarce, honey bees often collect this honeydew and carry it to the hive where it is converted into honey. Honeydew honey is usually dark and poorly flavored and has a limited sales value. Most honeydew honey is suitable for brood rearing in the spring and summer but contains too much indigestible material to be good for wintering bees.

Summary

Beekeepers must have a working knowledge of both major and minor nectar and pollen producing plants in the vicinity of their apiaries for successful honey production. This knowledge will enable beekeepers determine when to carry out various management practices, such as stimulating brood production, adding supers, using swarm control measures, harvesting honey, requeening, preparing colonies for winter and locating profitable apiary sites.

The list of nectar and pollen producing plants in this publication is not all-inclusive and all listings may not produce in all sections of the state. Beekeepers should observe their bees closely to learn the plants from which they collect nectar and pollen. Keep simple records of the dates when these plants bloom because there is a variation in dates from one section of the state to another, and also some variation from year to year. This information will enable beekeepers to manage honey bees for maximum production.

Some Pollen and Nectar Sources in Ohio

• P = Pollen Source
• N = Nectar Source
• HD = Honey Dew Source
• SA = Secrest Arboretum, OARDC, Wooster, Ohio
• OSUW = OSU Bee Laboratory Flower Garden, Wooster, Ohio
• MAJOR = Major Ohio source of either pollen or nectar

Disclaimer

This publication may contain pesticide recommendations that are subject to change at any time. These recommendations are provided only as a guide. It is always the pesticide applicator's responsibility, by law, to read and follow all current label directions for the specific pesticide being used. Due to constantly changing labels and product registrations, some of the recommendations given in this writing may no longer be legal by the time you read them. If any information in these recommendations disagrees with the label, the recommendation must be disregarded. No endorsement is intended for products mentioned, nor is criticism meant for products not mentioned. The author and Ohio State University Extension assume no liability resulting from the use of these recommendations.

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Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Keith L. Smith, Director, Ohio State University Extension.

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