Bees for Development
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Plants are essential to the honey bees' life. The production of honey depends on an abundant supply of nectar and pollen producing plants within easy flight range of the bee colony. Nectar forms the basis of honey, the energy rich (carbohydrate) food that honeybees need to sustain the life of the colony while pollen provides the protein, vitamins and other nutrients needed for the developing larvae. Without sufficient carbohydrate the colony will die of starvation quite quickly; without pollen the colony will die out slowly as it will not be able to produce new bees to replace old ones as they die. Propolis is collected from the resinous exudations of a range of trees. This is used to strengthen the comb, to keep the hive clean and free of infection and to seal up holes keeping out leaks and draughts as well as robber bees and damaging intruders.
Bees and flowering plants have a long relationship, developing together over the millennia in away that benefited both the plants and the insects and enabling both to survive better than they would have done alone. Bees are important to humans, not only for the production of honey and wax but particularly for their role in the pollination of plants including some important economic crops.
Worldwide, about 40,000 plant species are of value to bees while about 4,000 are the source of most of the worlds' honey. Among a long list of important economic crops, bees have been shown to increase the yields of sunflower, oilseeds, peaches, almonds, kiwi fruit, coffee, avocado, mango, pumpkins and beans.
Beekeepers who have acquired a good knowledge of the floral sources in their locality will be able to maintain their colonies in the best places for getting honey. Part of the skill of beekeeping is to enable the maximum population of foraging bees at the time when there is the maximum number of flowers. This will give the bees the best chance of collecting as much nectar as they can - and of course for the beekeeper to utilise the resulting honey crop.
List of Articles available on this topic (70):
Title | Author |
A contribution to the knowledge of the genus Prosopis (Hymenoptera:Apidae:Colletinae) in Israel | Warncke K |
A Honey Plant in Palestine | Reyahi, Bassel A |
An Evaluation of the Attractiveness to Apis Cerana F. of Honeybee Flora Growing in the Dhaka region of Bangladesh | Day, R.J. |
Apiculture in Bangladesh (includes list of 45 bee plants) | Dewan, S.M.A.L. |
Bee flora in Bosnia | Halisimonoic, R. |
Bee Flora of Hindu Kush-Himalayas: Inventory and Management | Partap, U. |
Bee Forage in Botswana | Clauss, Bernhard |
Bee Plants of Bas-Congo and Southern Tanzania | Latham, P |
Beekeeping and some Honeybee Plants in Umalila, S.Tanzania | Latham, P. |
Beekeeping development using value chain approach in Fogera district | Gebey, T.; Berhe, K.; Hoekstra D. |
Beekeeping in Upper Volta (II) | Swanson R A |
Bees and Trees | Svensson, B. |
Bee\'s eye view of flowering plants | Sasaki,M. |
Behaviour of insects foraging on pigeon pea in India | Williams, I.H. |
Buckwheat - plant some this year | Krochmal,C. |
Burkina Faso | Nombre, I.; Sawadogo, M.; Boussim, J. & Guinko, S. |
Common Names of plants in Bangladesh and West Bengal | |
Common Plants of Bangladesh their use to Bees | Day, R. |
Coppice | Mottershead,C |
Development of Utilization of Chinese Milk Vetch (Astragalus sinicus L.) as a honey plant | Yasue T |
Diet effects on honeybee immunocompetence | Alaux, C., Ducloz, F., Crauser, D. and Le Conte, Y. |
Discovering Herbs | Sanecki, K N |
Food and Fruit-bearing Forest Species 1: Examples from Eastern Africa | FAO |
Foraging range of the Indian honeybee | Dhaliwai, H.S.; Sharma, P.L. |
Forestry Research Management: Proceedings of the International Seminar held at Dehra Dun, India | FORSPA/FAO |
Fruit Crops Pollination | Jindal, K.K., & Verma, L.R. |
Governing Forest Commons in the Congo Basin: Non-Timber Forest Product Value Chains | Ingram, V. |
Honey Flora of Queensland | Blake, S.T. & Roff, C. |
Honey flows upwards across China | Tang-Dong, J. |
Honeybee colony development & the flowering calendar | Liseki, S. and Boniphace, S. |
Honeybee Flora Of Ethiopia | Fichtl, R. & Adi, A. |
How to find wild bees/Como encontrar abelhas silvestres | Hertz, O. |
IBRA Table 10: Numbers of A. cerana foragers on 12 plant species in 10min observation Manikganj site | IBRA |
IBRA Table 11: Numbers of A. cerana foragers on 12 plant species in 10min observation Panchdona site | IBRA |
IBRA Table 1: Results for Apis Cerana at Jhitka site | IBRA |
IBRA Table 8: Combined floral/bee forage calender for group 5 plants foraged by A Cerana | IBRA |
IBRA Table 9: Numbers of A. cerana foragers on 12 plant species in 10min observation Jhitka site | IBRA |
Israel: 1993 Summary | |
Measurement of Nectar Secretion and Sugar Composition of Nectar and Honey in Chinese Milk Vetch (Astragalus sinicus L) | Yasue T, Sasano A, Yokote S |
Plants and Beekeeping | Howes, F N |
Plants and honeybees: An introduction to their relationships | Aston, D. and Bucknall, S. |
Plants from the Markets of Thailand | Jacquat, C. |
Pollen substitutes and supplements | Gregory, P. |
Pollination of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics | Roubik, D.W. |
Present Status of Chinese Milk vetch, Astragalus sinicus, as a Supersedure Crop in Rice Fields in Japan | Suetsugu A |
Publications relating to African Honey Bees and Beekeeping reported in Apicultural Abstracts 1990 (editions 1 - 4) and 1991 (editions 1 - 3) | |
State of the World\'s Forests | Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations |
Studies on foraging activity of honeybees on apple flowers (II) | Choi, S.Y.; Kim, T.S. |
Studies on Utilizing Honeybees for Increasing the Fruit Yield and Developing Camellia meiocarpa as a Source of Honey | Chao S. W., Cheng Q. Z., Liu Z. Z., Zhou S. L. |
The Asian Hive Bee, Apis cerana, as a Pollinator in Vegetable Seed Production | Verma, L.R. & Partap, U. |
The Investigation and Study of China\'s Bee Plants | Xu W-L |
The use and abuse of introducing honey plants | Eisikowitch D; Dafni A |
The wild garden and the honey bee | Duncan,M |
Trees Bees Use - Antigonon leptopus - Coral Creeper | Sadakathulla, S.; Rajendran, R.; Mohan, R. & Jalaluddin, S.M. |
Trees Bees Use - Bhoca - a bee forage plant | Rehel, S. |
TREES BEES USE - Bombax costatum | Dukku,U.H.D. |
Trees Bees Use - Caylusea abyssinica | Latham, P. |
Trees Bees Use - Caylusea abyssinica (Resedaceae) | Latham, P. |
Trees bees use - Chromolaena odorata | Adesina, G.O. & Babarinde, S.A. |
Trees Bees Use - Chromolaena odorata | Adesina, G.O. & Babarinde, S.A. |
Trees Bees Use - Datura stramonium - Jimson Weed | Abila, N. |
Trees Bees Use - Fuchsia - A bee forage plant | Duggan, M. |
Trees Bees Use - Pithecellobium dulce - Sweet Tamarind | Leo, R. |
TREES BEES USE - Polyscias fulva (Araliaceae) | Latham,P |
TREES BEES USE - The logwood tree - Haematoxylum camechianum | Duggan,M. |
Trees bees use - vitex orinocensis | Thimann, Rafael |
Waggle dance controversy resolved | Bees for Development |
Warning signals - from the Apple Valleys of the Hindu Kush-himalayas - productivity concerns and pollination problems - abridged edition | Partap, U. & Partap, T. |
Wicked Plants | Stewart,A. |
Zoom in on Jamaica | Bees for Development |