Planting for Bees

JUNE 2016 A GUIDE TO PLANTING FOR BEES Angus McPherson Linda Newstrom-Lloyd Marco Gonzalez Tony Roper FOREWORD BY ROSS LITTLE, CHAIR OF TREES FOR BEES NZ Bees are under threat around the globe from a number of diseases and other problems. The varroa mite’s arrival in New Zealand demonstrated the risk, decimating bee hives and imposing control costs. Instigated by John Hartnell of Federated Farmers Bees, the Trees for Bees NZ project started in 2009 to encourage farmers to plant species with bee nutrition in mind, and funding was obtained from the Ministry of Primary Industries’ Sustainable Farming Fund. Research was needed to determine the nutritive value of various plant species—a world first in many cases—and our dedicated scientist, Dr Linda Newstrom-Lloyd, has worked tirelessly on this while also identifying species that flower at times to extend the length of the bee’s season. Apiculture Officers from AsureQuality Limited, Marco Gonzalez and Tony Roper, have contributed enormously to the success of the project. In 2013, Dr Angus McPherson joined the team as a farm planting advisor to create and oversee planting 18 demonstration farms, thus enabling widespread research uptake throughout New Zealand. A number of councils and apiculture industry members have also been very supportive and the project has grown considerably. This booklet summarises our efforts on how to plant for bees. Bees are amazing creatures, and much of the world’s food production depends on their pollination. They deserve our support. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Why plant for bees? 3 Flowering calendars and bee feed budgets 4&5 Planning your bee feed planting 6 Protecting your bee feed plants 7 Queen and nucleus production yards and apiary sites 8 Like many pastoral farmers, our family has valued having beehives on our property in North Canterbury for many years. Shade and shelter 9 Pollination of clover by bees plays a vital part in provision Land stabilisation 10 of nitrogen to pasture through the nodules on the roots of legumes. In conjunction with phosphate fertiliser and aerial Riparian protection 11 topdressing, this pollination has helped transform Native plants 12 New Zealand’s hill country. Mānuka plantations 13 Of course, bees are vital for the production of many arable and horticultural crops, and it is estimated they contribute over Amenity 14 $5 billion to our economy each year! Orchards, nutteries, vineyards, and edible gardens 15 WHY PLANT FOR BEES? Farmers need honey bees for pollinating pasture, horticulture Planting a wide diversity of plant species improves bee and arable crops. Farms also provide valuable sites for nutrition and covers times when a particular species fails to wintering hives and for spring build-up. With the rapid flower in any one year. Bees also benefit from clustering plants increase in hive numbers in the last five years we are reaching of the same species to make foraging more efficient. a crisis point in terms of available bee feed, and so additional bee feed needs to be planted. By planting multi-functional This booklet provides an overview of the principles and trees for bees on farms, you can incorporate bee feed into guidelines for planting for bees, along with practical tips your on-farm planting for a wide variety of purposes. on how to plant. It represents a snapshot of our collective knowledge at this time, and provides a starting point for The foundation of our work is a large database of bee plants people interested in planting for bees. and their characteristics including bee preferences, pollen quality (e.g., protein content) and quantity, flower density and The plants mentioned in this booklet represent a small fraction of flowering times. The Trees for Bees database contains well the total bee plant species available and readers are encouraged over 400 species for New Zealand. to further research the options. Plant lists and planting designs are available on our website, www.treesforbeesnz.org and are These plant lists then become the starting point for our farm continually updated as the research progresses. and apiary bee feed designs. Choosing what to plant depends on many factors, including climate and plant tolerances, soil Happy planting. and water, life form, canopy level, plant size at maturity, and The Trees for Bees Team planting location. June 2016 Not all flowering plants are suitable because of their potential for invasiveness. Some plants are toxic to bees (karaka, some rhododendrons) and should never be planted for bees. A flax flower has 5 mg of pollen on average, so from 25 to 30 flax flowers are needed to grow one bee from egg to adult. 3 FLOWERING CALENDARS AND BEE FEED BUDGETS Flowering calendars and bee feed budgets are optional tools to pollination and honey harvesting times. This is going to vary help visualise feed deficits for your bees. They help to show how according what you want the bees to do for you. For example, a proposed list of bee feed plant species can balance the pollen crop pollination in large-scale monocultures will need to have and nectar supply over the year before you install the plants. some diversity of pollen and nectar just to keep the bees well nourished. Kiwifruit pollination will need primarily nectar A bee feed budget is constructed by making a bar chart based sources but not too many competing pollen sources. Mānuka on adding up the monthly columns in the flowering calendar. will need pollen sources such as tarata (lemonwood) but not The totals show you how many species or numbers of plants too many competing nectar sources. In contrast, bees have are producing flowers in each month. been reported to do well on brassica monocultures alone. It ultimately depends on the nutrition provided by the target crop. Most of the time, experienced beekeepers have a flowering calendar in their minds based on their observations at an apiary site over the years. They may not be able to name all the plant species used or when they flower exactly but they do know the obvious ones. They will also know from experience how many hives will do well on a given site because they can roughly measure the carrying capacity of the site by trial and This example on page 5 is based on one planting error over the years (i.e., adding and subtracting hives until event of 395 native plants installed in East Cape with they get it right). Naati Beez on May 2016. The top flowering calendar is based on the number of species planted to check Experienced beekeepers usually know when supply if there is enough diversity of plants in each month deficits occur at a given site because the colonies start (each cell scores 1 or blank). The corresponding bar to fall backwards. The beekeeper may have to provide chart is the Bee Feed Budget for species diversity supplementary artificial feed to get the bees through. This is showing the totals of each column for each month. why all of our demonstration farms include the beekeeper and It shows that the late autumn to early winter period the landowner on the team to design a good bee feed budget. has up to 5 species but the early autumn can be By making a flowering calendar for an apiary site, it is possible improved. Note mānuka is not counted as it is the to explicitly confirm that all seasonal demands are filled and target plant. Also, tarata is included as a pollen the pollen and nectar supply meets the colony requirements source during mānuka flowering. Species diversity without any stressful dearth periods. Then the only artificial should reach > 10 species for each major period. feed needed would be due to poor flying weather, when the The bottom flowering calendar is based on the bees cannot get out foraging for excessively long periods of number of trees and shrubs planted to try to time and have used up all their stored pollen and nectar in the estimate the supply volume. The corresponding bar hive. For example, it may be too cold or too much heavy rain chart for the Bee Feed Budget for number of trees for weeks in the spring. shows that springtime has the most trees planted In general, the pollen demand is extremely high in spring when but you would need to assess how much pollen per the colony is rapidly building up bee numbers from a winter plant is produced to further refine this quantitative population that is only about 10,000 bees to a peak of > 60,000 estimate. The method of counting number of trees bees per hive. Peak bee populations are essential in late spring does not take into account the quantity of pollen for and summer for pollination services and honey harvesting. each plant. For example, a mature houhere tree will have far more pollen than a Hebe stricta shrub. It is Then in autumn, after the honey harvest, bee numbers decline nevertheless a useful tool to visualise the supply until and the bees must restore their honey supply unless the we can develop more detailed information on pollen beekeeper has left them sufficient honey. The pollen demand quantity per plant. is less strong in the autumn but it is just as critical to have an adequate supply. Autumn bees have to survive the long This flowering calendar does not include pre- months of winter when no new brood is emerging to replenish existing plants at the site nor does it specify the the population. They need to be robust with adequate protein range. These could be included ultimately if an and fat from pollen to make it through the winter.

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