------ Original Message ------
From: "Floyd Cope" <[log in to unmask]>

>Geoff Greetings, what I have seen is that Dutch white clover is not the bees favorite flower, they can and will use it however if something else is handy (blackberries in my case) they go there. We also have a few blueberries and bumble bees work best for us there. I don't have hard data just rough counting but it seems that by the time a honeybee has visited three flowers a bumble bee has been to ten.

     Bees are quite keen to work our Naturalised Clover.  Some 
orchardists locally mow it when in flower for that reason, rightly or 
wrongly.  Hereabouts it almost never yields nectar, but the pollen is 
great.  This is a summer rainfall area and the clover needs a winter 
rainfall or at least a cold winter.  Except for Tasmania we don't have 
bumble bees, and there they were introduced from New Zealand where they 
were also introduced.  No blackberries locally, they are not suited to 
the climate.  Although I have one hive to start with on a patch of 
cultivars.  More planted.

In Randy's pic there appeared to be almonds flowering and also mustard, 
something I assume is very attractive to honeybees, as are almonds I 
understand.

     Geoff Manning

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