Saturday, March 27, 2010

Sweet Yellow Clover Field

I have been contemplating what to do with a pasture field right by my bee hives. There has not been any cattle in the field for over 2 years and we do not need the hay for our livestock. I was researching northern nectar sources on the internet and found a great summary of different plants. See the link from none other than Wikipedia:
This points out a lot of great sources. I choose to do the clover because it is readily available in my area and it will not spread like a weed to my other organic fields and I could still have cattle graze the pasture. At the end of the blossom I could also bale it and use it as hay (even though yellow clover looks a bit too coarse of a stock) and it must be properly dried or it acts like an anti-coagulant (ex: rat poison).
Wikipedia claims that sweet yellow clover can yield up to 500lbs of honey per acre and I plan on only changing over 1 acre of 4 to sweet yellow clover. I am excited with the idea of a close source of nectar from May to August!
 I bought my organic sweet yellow clover seed from a local supplier; he recommended 20lbs per acre. I was able to purchase the bag for $34. I have to plow the old pasture up and disc it to break it up and then sow it. I also plan on running a pass with the packer.

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