My wife and I are brand new beekeepers and are in the process of establishing two package bee colonies (was three, but one swarmed).
We have a couple acres of pasture area around the hives that we're thinking about seeding in white sweet clover next year. Here's the extent of what we know or have heard about white sweet clover:
1. White sweet clover is a biennial.
2. In the middle midwest you seed it in March.
3. It blooms the first year. This is the honey producing year.
4. It produces seed the second year then dies off . No honey the second year.
Here's our questions:
1. Are we misunderstanding anything above?
2. Does it reseed itself each year thereafter?
3. How do you establish a new white clover field that produces blooms and nectar for the bees every year?
4. Can you just broadcast the seed on the ground or does it have to be "drilled"?
5. Do you seed anything else with the white clover?
6. Do you need to fertilize it? If so, what are you suppose to use?
Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.
We have a couple acres of pasture area around the hives that we're thinking about seeding in white sweet clover next year. Here's the extent of what we know or have heard about white sweet clover:
1. White sweet clover is a biennial.
2. In the middle midwest you seed it in March.
3. It blooms the first year. This is the honey producing year.
4. It produces seed the second year then dies off . No honey the second year.
Here's our questions:
1. Are we misunderstanding anything above?
2. Does it reseed itself each year thereafter?
3. How do you establish a new white clover field that produces blooms and nectar for the bees every year?
4. Can you just broadcast the seed on the ground or does it have to be "drilled"?
5. Do you seed anything else with the white clover?
6. Do you need to fertilize it? If so, what are you suppose to use?
Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.