If you think you’ll stick with beekeeping for more than a couple of years, you may want to consider planting flowering trees, shrubs and cover crops to diversify and potentially improve your honey flow.
This concept is more for the long-haul planning beekeepers or those that just want to give our buzzy little friends a little extra help.
So, a little bit of planning is involved with this idea. Do you plan on staying on the property your hives are located, or do you plan on moving in the future? How much land do you have to work with? Is it suitable to plant trees on? Do you have power lines or other utilities that may become an obstacle? How good is the soil on your property? And, most importantly, do you plan to stick with beekeeping longer than a few years?
So let’s say all of those questions haven’t dissuaded you from planting honeybee friendly plants. Below is a table showing a hand-picked selection of trees, shrubs, and other plants including their approximated blooming time. The ideal setup would be to have some of each of the plants listed so that as one tree is ending it’s bloom, another one is just getting started to keep the honey flow going.
| Approximate Bloom Time | ||||||
| Month | March | April | May | June | July | August |
| Plant | Cherry Red Maple | Cherry Red Maple Sugar Maple Blackberry | Tulip Poplar Black Locust Sugar Maple Blackberry Elderberry Viburnum | Tulip Poplar Black Locust Sourwood Elderberry Viburnum | Sourwood Elderberry | |
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