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. List local flowering plants, and categorise them according to the abundance of flowers.

2. Monitor the activity 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.

* Please see the original journal article to see the example of a floral calendar