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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Elisabeth Curtis <granda.curtis AT gmail.com>
  • To: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org, "Rex L. Williams, Jr." <rexwilliams.03 AT gmail.com>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Bee-friendly Vines
  • Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:27:50 -0500

We had an aster growing intermixed with a jasmine for some time. The aster can get leggy toward the bottom of the vine, and the jasmine took care of that concern. The bees  very seldom visited the jasmine.

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:
Rex,

Honey bees are very good at what they do. They use smell, color (including UV range), shape, marking pheromones and probably other features to target exactly what they are looking for. They aren't perfect (who is?) but they are amazing. Preferential experiments are commonly done on honey bees using an array of adjacent petri dishes with differently formulated sugar solutions; the proximity of the choices apparently doesn't create confusion. So my educated guess is that two different flowers side-by-side would not confuse a honey bee in the least.

One of the fascinating (and economically useful) traits of honey bees is that they have "Flower Fidelity". That is, on a given foraging trip, they (typically) only visit flowers of the same type (e.g. a hundred blueberry blossoms, or a hundred apple blossoms, but not blueberry then apple then henbit then blueberry again). To be able to do that, they must have a skill that allows them to find exactly what they are looking for, as described above. How amazing is THAT?

Randall


On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Rex L. Williams, Jr. <rexwilliams.03 AT gmail.com> wrote:

Wow, lots of good suggestions.  Seems that the aster is a pretty popular suggestion.  My concern stemmed from both the scary things on some websites (i.e., mummified brood, death from toxic honey, etc.) and that the jasmine is growing right next to where I was thinking the best place for the hive would be.  That said, I still haven’t decided on exactly where to place it yet.  Also, I suppose lots of information on the internet is prone to over-reaction, no surprise there. 

 

Many thanks to everyone for the advice.  One further question, though.  If we were to decide to keep the jasmine but plant other flowering vines, do you suppose it would be problematic for them to be placed near or very close to the jasmine?  My hunch is that bees can probably discriminate between different nectar sources, regardless of how close they may be to one another, but I’m new to this so I’m prone to not trust my hunches yet.

 

Rex

 

From: Randall Austin [mailto:ra41717 AT gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2012 10:21 AM
To: Rex L. Williams, Jr.
Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [ocba] Bee-friendly Vines

 

Rex,

I'll defer to Geneva's knowledge if it differs from mine, but I would like to put your mind to rest about one thing: You DON'T need to pull out the jasmine you already have unless you want to. Most bee-toxic plants are also unsavory to the bees, so they avoid them. And most bee-toxic nectar that may come into your hive gets considerably diluted by "good" nectar. And regardless of what you have in your yard, you have no control over what someone is growing within the foraging radius of your hive (thousands of acres).

I think it is a great idea to plant bee-friendly plants (I do that too -- it is really neat to hear a bush emit a deep loud hum during blooming season), but you shouldn't agonize over a few plants that are on the bee-bad list. Maybe a comforting plan would be to plant at least one "good" plant for every "bad" one, as long as the blooming season of each overlaps. But the main thing is, "don't worry, bee happy!" You aren't murdering bees by owning a jasmine, or if you are, they can't prove it in court.

Randall Austin

On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 10:37 PM, Rex L. Williams, Jr. <rexwilliams.03 AT gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Beekeepers,

 

My name is Rex Williams and I am new to OCBA and will be starting a hive this spring.  The wife and I are planning which plants to place in the yard this year and I found that the Carolina Jasmine that we have growing on trellises are toxic to the bees.  I was hoping that perhaps some of you might have suggestions on climbing vines that grow well in the area and might make a good replacement for the Jasmine.  Searching the internet has suggested that Trumpet Vines, Morning Glory or Wisteria would be good choices, but I have found some conflicting information regarding this. 

 

Any help you all could offer would be greatly appreciated!

 

Rex


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--
Elisabeth




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