FLORAL CALENDARS Successful honeybee management depends upon a thorough knowledge of the local forage available to honeybees throughout the year. This allows the beekeeper to plan ahead: to build up strong colonies in time for honey flows, and to be prepared to feed in times of likely dearth. Efficient honeybee management is easiest in locations with very predictable climates an hence reliable honey flows. A floral calendar is a diagram which shows the approximate dates and duration of flowering of important nectar and pollen plants for a particular locality. It is a very helpful aid to successful beekeeping.
To prepare a floral calendar for your
area you need to assemble the following data: 1.
bY ON
> Jo
BEEKEEPING
BASED
|S
RURALC
ON
THis?
te
tring. thing
4h
2a
the
List local flowering plants, and categorise them according to the abundance of flowers.
Eockedsiaateg 3:/
2. Monitor the acitivty of local honeybee colonies. The most satisfactory way ‘to do this is to measure hive weights to determine whether colonies are increasing or decreasing. 3. Identify which plants bees are visiting, and whether they are collecting nectar and/or pollen. Determine the frequency with which bees visit particular plant species and relate this to the level of food stores within the colony. 4. For each flowering species which is important for bees record the date that it first comes into flower, and the duration of flowering. 5. Assemble the data into a useful format, and check it from year to year. The more years over which the data is verified, the more reliable and useful will the calendar be.
Here is an example of an excellent floral calendar. it was prepared by D M McKinnon for use in Zimbabwe, and is reproduced with his kind permission. The calendar shows indigenous and cultivated plants, whether they are nectar and/or pollen producers, and the period of their flowering, together with seasonal dates.
ko
INDIGENOVUS
PLANTS
t
NATIONAL
orm Rarncn1are
utld prar
WtAato wmeGota
Apiceforornie
cee
,
goes Plerocar pus Rea oer el igeoler Comb uelicor mrotle. Brachy tag
<gecern
TREE
meet
Rinne.
plum
Z ~2 4off af combielim avatintewy
gteitodc
Ti<te paper Carh thorw
Acca
ndelterrana amntec.aonitle, 3<piphus Jtemernatia spf.
Peellophioriinre africanum, a<ta Loroco Bauhtenia Thonn gie ns onda, yotipflona
.
SO ws tuffeto WMA gtidie watt,
Choe
corntle foot
mono Lhatch
grade tbuchisccd
df). Fawrta Jcpeccoia Yrwnonea amygdatiena. wiuceihavahads< as
Erytitcna atyiscnica
*
eck” Cea Mayor
AQUA,
Lret
rumah 68/ 252 166 175
ssa 775
5 e 8 PI
248 0
2i 224 618 7392
280 208
268 260
el
i
q 4 4 > BI
7 =
1145
>
366 <1
