growing buckwheat

[drewgrim]

I planted some buckwheat about a week ago. hopefully it will provide some extra nectar come fall.

this article has a whole section about it as a honey crop. they say 1 acre can get the bees to provide 150 pounds of honey.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/buckwheat.html

[Kurt Bower]

Would you be growing the honey for sale or bee consumption?
I often have customers ask for buckwheat honey but those customers are few.
best of luck.

Kurt

[drewgrim]

for bee consumption. i would like to see them get some extra stores for the winter.

[Jacobs]

I picked up some of Mike's buckwheat seed earlier this season and planted about a 15 by 25 patch in my back yard (where the tomato plants would have been had they done any good). It is blooming now and the bees are getting something for breakfast. I have mixed greens and crimson clover in another patch. I figure the greens will be in bloom in December or January, depending on the weather, and the crimson clover is an early May nectar producer. Next year I will mix buckwheat and crimson clover in one area to give a late fall and early winter nectar source. I doubt this is enough to make a big difference for my hives, but it does my heart good to see the bees out and working.

[Jacobs]

David and I planted about an acre of buckwheat in McLeansville Saturday morning. If the weather cooperates, the bees will only have a short distance over the pasture to get to some of the sweetest smelling blooms in nature (if you enjoy mucking stables).

[mike91553]

bees on buckwheat

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i7kvu4jooor0l ... 6.mov?dl=0

I wish bees would work soybeans this well, then we wouldn't be in a dearth so long.