JULY | AUGUST 2016
Almond Facts
33
Planting Seeds for Bees
When is the best time to plant honey bee forage? In the
fall, prior to the onset of fall rains. Depending on your
needs, you might be interested in an early-blooming
mustard mix that includes canola and daikon radish, or a
later-blooming clover mix that fixes soil nitrogen. Either
mix will serve as a cover crop with many benefits to you,
the grower (see side bar).
Where can you plant honey bee forage? Bee-nutritious
cover crops can be planted along access roads,
waterways, orchard borders, on fallow or unused land,
in between rows of young, non-bearing trees or even as a
cover crop between tree rows.
Is there Bloom Competition when
Other Flowers are Present?
One of the more frequent grower concerns is the
possibility that almond flowers will not be visited if the
cover crop blooms during the almond bloom as a result
of planting time or precipitation variability. However,
bee forage cover crops will not decrease almond yield.
Recent work by Dr. Neil Williams, UC Davis, shows
almond flowers are preferentially visited by honey bees
in the presence of other blooming flowers. Bees will fly
to the most nutritious food source available at the least
energy cost to them. Almond pollen is highly nutritious
pollen and is positioned openly and easily accessible
on the anthers of almond flowers. Further, most of the
day’s pollen has been stripped by honey bees by mid-
afternoon. If at that time there are other pollen sources
available, bees will work these additional pollen sources.
The increased pollen coming to the hive stimulates the
queen to lay more eggs and the colony builds a greater
working pollination force to pollinate your crop.
Consider Planting a
Honey Bee Forage Crop
Sowing Seeds for Bees is a win-win for bees and for almond
growers. Contact Billy Synk (
),
visit the Forage tab at
, and click
on the forage videos on that website to learn more. Again,
PAm will provide the seed. Beekeepers work all year long
to find food for their bees, rarely owning the land where
their bees graze. The generosity of landowners, ranchers,
farmers and orchardists like yourselves will help improve
those honey bee loss statistics. Improved honey bee health
translates to a greater supply of bees and decreased hive
rental costs to the grower.
AUGUST | J LY
A Bee Forage Cover CropWill:
• Improve soil fertility
• Increase organic material
• Fix nitrogen
• Improve water infiltration
• Suppress noxious weeds
• Conserve soil moisture,
• Increase pollination diversity by attracting
native pollinators
• Reduce soil erosion
• Anchor your rented bees while enticing more
bees into your orchard
Bee Informed Partnership’s
Annual Bee Loss Survey Results.
A mustard cover crop planted
in the fall and timed to emerge
before bloom maintains the
population of your rented
colonies and draws in more
bees to your orchard.
