Author Topic: Peach Trees (Read 3682 times)

bwallace23350 · « **on:** February 22, 2018, 06:40:59 pm »

Do honey bees like peach trees? I can find nothing on it

Dallasbeek · « **Reply #1 on:** February 22, 2018, 07:15:35 pm »

If you're asking if honey bees like peach trees because you want to see your peach trees pollinated, it's my understanding that mason bees are better pollinators of stone fruit of all kinds. But mason bees don't make honey and don't travel very far.

gww · « **Reply #2 on:** February 22, 2018, 07:21:44 pm »

The bees work my peach blooms. I have seen them on the blooms. Not like I see and hear them on my crab apple tree but my peach trees are all pretty small yet. Last year was a hard freeze mid bloom and so there was not much to work but I did see it with my own eyes.
Cheers
gww

Acebird · « **Reply #3 on:** February 22, 2018, 11:03:58 pm »

The benefit of having bees in your back yard is bees will hit your fruit trees. Maybe they are the bees in training so they don't go out so far. If you have fruit trees and no bees and then you put a hive in your back yard you will see a difference and it is not subjective it makes a difference. We have apples, peaches, plumbs and cherries. We buy blue berries and strawberries.

bwallace23350 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 23, 2018, 10:39:07 am »

I hope they work it but is it a nectar source? My whole goal is to dilute the clover honey in my spring honey. The cherry trees are fixing to bloom out also.

AR Beekeeper · « **Reply #5 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:15:56 am »

bwallace; Why do you want to dilute the clover honey? Here clover is the prized spring nectar flow.

bwallace23350 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:18:51 am »

Don't really like the taste

Hops Brewster · « **Reply #7 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:26:39 am »

Peach, prunus persica, is listed here as a honey plant;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honey_plants

I don't know how much peach nectar it would take to 'dilute' the clover. But isn't it more seasonal than anything? In my neck o the woods, peach blossoms much earlier than clover, so my local peach nectar would be in even before I put honey supers on.

bwallace23350 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:34:41 am »

Quote from: Hops Brewster on February 23, 2018, 11:26:39 am

Peach, prunus persica, is listed here as a honey plant;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honey_plants

I don't know how much peach nectar it would take to 'dilute' the clover. But isn't it more seasonal than anything? In my neck o the woods, peach blossoms much earlier than clover, so my local peach nectar would be in even before I put honey supers on.

My peach tree has not quite opened up yet and the clover by the roadside has in spots and is coming up in the field. I have now seen my bees on my plums and now my blueberries. Have not seem them on my pears and my apples trees have not opened up but they are young so probably not a lot of blooms.

bwallace23350 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:35:03 am »

I also assume they have been on other things. Seen them on henbit once also.

AR Beekeeper · « **Reply #10 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:37:38 am »

Pellett's book "American Honey Plants" lists peach trees as a nectar source, but states that in most areas the bloom comes before most colonies are strong enough to make surplus. The nectar is mainly used for producing brood.

gww · « **Reply #11 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:40:27 am »

bw
I am new and don't know from experiance but the only guys that get any tree nectors are the ones who feed early with purpose to get it. For the rest of us, the trees are usually blooming at a time when the hives are building populations for the main flow and used on raising brood with no excess.
Cheers
gww
Ps AR.... types faster then me but I posted anyway.

bwallace23350 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:45:49 am »

No problem. Well sadly I might get a big ole crop of mainly clover honey. Better than no honey.Next year I might just feed hard for this very reason.

Hops Brewster · « **Reply #13 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:48:42 am »

or move them to a different nectar source, if ya can.

bwallace23350 · « **Reply #14 on:** February 23, 2018, 11:52:38 am »

Wish I could but do not know how. I might do a split soon and move the new hive near to the woods a half mile away to see what that does.

AR Beekeeper · « **Reply #15 on:** February 23, 2018, 12:06:52 pm »

You could plant a little spring Buckwheat crop if you have any grass lands not being used for other purposes. Mowing a quarter or a half acre close and broadcasting the seed usually will give a stand of plants sufficient to produce enough nectar to noticeably change the color of clover honey. It depends on the number of colonies collecting the nectar.

bwallace23350 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 23, 2018, 12:43:56 pm »

Quote from: AR Beekeeper on February 23, 2018, 12:06:52 pm

You could plant a little spring Buckwheat crop if you have any grass lands not being used for other purposes. Mowing a quarter or a half acre close and broadcasting the seed usually will give a stand of plants sufficient to produce enough nectar to noticeably change the color of clover honey. It depends on the number of colonies collecting the nectar.

I am experimenting with buckwheat right now as a green mulch in a spot of poor soil. If it goes ever well I will do more in my current crop rotation plans.

bwallace23350 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 23, 2018, 12:44:58 pm »

Honey bee on my plum tree

minz · « **Reply #18 on:** February 23, 2018, 08:32:08 pm »

I have been trouble getting an Italian prune pollinated. My yellow plum and grandma?s plum get so much fruit they break if not thinned and the largest tree of them all is the Italian, second only to my big red. The last two I get about 2 dozen between them. I think it is because the cherry blooms at the same time. I must have 5-10 hives here all year, you would think somebody would hit them enough to get fruit?
I was going to graft a parsons to them but the cost of fruit trees here is at $10 so maybe just plant another tree?

Acebird · « **Reply #19 on:** February 23, 2018, 08:41:34 pm »

Cut the heck out of that plumb tree. Make like a samurai warrior.