Respond to: [log in to unmask]
 
Source of buckwheat seed:  Burkett Mills in Penn Yan, NY. They will ship UPS.
 They contract with growers in the Finger Lakes, and manufacture stone ground
buckwheat pancake mix, etc. (They may be the last one.)
    Older beekeepers report that the old varieties yielded a lot better than
the newer Japanes varieties, but I don't know if these are still available.
    Others can probably give you more on economics of planting for bees. I
doubt that it pays, unless you think of other values, like wildlife feed. If
I did it I'd go for sweet clover and sunflowers, as well as buckwheat. These
would bring in a lot of birds as well.