Hi all
I started this thread to point out the recent research being done on what constitutes the best sort of forage for pollinators, not to issue sweeping conclusions.

Obviously, most beekeepers have focused on cash crops: pollination for pay, or bumper honey crops. With the increased difficulty in overwintering large numbers of colonies, or at least having the maximum available for spring pollination (almonds, apples, etc.) we are scrutinizing what are the make or break factors that occur in late summer. 

One important factor is summer pollen flow. If honey bees do not get a good late summer pollen flow, they may enter winter in a malnourished state. Here Reed Johnson, et al identify crop land as preferable to forest and grassland:

Since the availability of floral resources
at the landscape scale is a function of landscape composition, apiculturists have
long recognized that landscape composition is a critical determinant of honey bee
colony success. Nevertheless, very few studies present quantitative data relating
colony success metrics to local landscape composition. We employed a beekeeper
survey in conjunction with GIS-based landscape analysis to model colony success as
a function of landscape composition in the State of Ohio, USA, a region characterized
by intensive cropland, urban development, deciduous forest, and grassland. We
found that colony food accumulation and wax production were positively related to
cropland and negatively related to forest and grassland, a pattern that may be driven
by the abundance of dandelion and clovers in agricultural areas compared to forest
or mature grassland

Sponsler, D. B., & Johnson, R. M. (2015). Honey bee success predicted by landscape composition in Ohio, USA. PeerJ, 3, e838.

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