Medium plants are represented by a number of shrubs, trees and grasses, including wild ones. Before reviewing them briefly, let’s consider what is meant by the definition of “middle band”.
The content of the article
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Early spring honey harvest
- 3 Spring honey collection (end of April, May)
- 4 Early summer honey collection
- 5 Honey collection in summer
- 6 Late summer honey harvest
- 7 Honey harvest in autumn
Introduction
It so happened that different information sources refer to different geographic territories under this term. We will mean the European part of the Russian Federation, including the regions around Moscow (the so-called Central Economic Region), the regions north of it (Vologda, Novgorod, Pskov, Leningrad), as well as the southern Chernozem and eastern Volga regions.
Traditionally, this does not include the Komi Republic, Perm Territory, Bashkortostan, Udmurtia, Tatarstan and the Orenburg Region.
Below are the honey plants of central Russia by month:
Medium lane honey trees:
Read: Review of honey trees
Early spring honey harvest
For convenience, all honey plants will be divided into periods, depending on the months of their flowering.
Early honey plants of the middle lane, as in any region, are distinguished by the fact that they secrete nectar even at low air temperatures.
This is the period of late March and early, mid-April. At this time, bee colonies are just beginning their development – they do not work with a bribe to their full capacity, however, it is very important, as it is stimulating (developing).
It is noteworthy that the strongest nests, which overwintered well and began to develop even before flying around, can bring a certain amount of marketable honey to the beekeeper! This happens mainly in early and rather warm springs. Such colonies can be expanded without fear of cooling, and they can be given half frames (their number is selected in accordance with the nesting combs).
Of the most productive plants in April, it can be noted:
Ivu bredinu (goat) blooming for ten days and giving even in the most unfavorable years up to 10-15 kilograms of nectar per hectare. In the warm early spring, strong colonies get about 6 kg of honey from a tree per working day.
Other species of willows have a significant effect on honey collection. You can read more about them here: Willow (willow) as a honey plant
Another April honey plant – common maple… It dissolves by the end of the month, blooms for up to ten days. It also gives for strong bee colonies 5-6 kilograms of nectar per day.
Quite good melliferous plants and other types of maples. You can learn more about them from our article: Maple as a valuable honey plant
From herbs it is necessary to highlight mother and stepmother… She is one of the first to bloom, when the snow has not yet completely melted. Long bloom – 40-45 days. This perennial is easily propagated by seeds and pieces of rhizomes. In addition to nectar, it provides bee colonies with an abundant flow of pollen. Productivity is from 5 to 15 kilograms of nectar per hectare.
Spring honey collection (end of April, May)
The main spring honey harvest provides more plants. May honey plants of the middle zone are presented:
Willow (white willow), which blooms in early May and blooms for up to two weeks. From a hectare of dense plantations, you can get up to 140 kilograms of honey.
Winter rapeseedproducing from 30 to 90 kilograms of nectar per hectare. This is a commercial honey with an original taste (very sweet, with a bitter aftertaste) and the ability to remove toxins from the human body.
Read more: Rapeseed and its benefits as a honey plant
Gooseberryblooming for 2 to 2,5 weeks. A valuable source of pollen and nectar. Productivity up to 75 kilograms per hectare.
Black currant, although not a record holder in its kind, but still giving bee colonies from 7 to 32 kilograms per hectare.
By the end of the month, fruit trees are also blooming, contributing to the development and market bribe. In addition, it blooms:
Sowing sainfoin… The flowering period is 15-20 days, including the beginning of June. The plant is of great value, since at the very beginning of summer there are few abundantly flowering melliferous plants in nature. The culture consistently releases up to 120 kilograms of nectar from each hectare of crops.
Medicinal Dandelion, opening up for two weeks. In warm May, it produces up to 50 kilograms of nectar. It is also a source of pollen (pollen).
Chernoklen or Tatar maplesecreting nectar for two to three weeks. This is a good honey plant – from 70 to 80 kilograms of honey can be obtained from a hectare of plantations.
Yellow acacia blooms from mid-May and blooms for two weeks. In favorable weather, strong bee colonies bring up to 5 kilograms of nectar from its thickets.
Read more: Acacia as a honey plant
The peculiarity of spring honey plants lies in the fact that at the moment of their flowering, not all bee colonies reach their maximum development – they work in the field with less intensity than in summer. Consequently, the situation can be changed for the better by changing the structure of families (for example, by raiding or uniting the strongest nests).
Early summer honey collection
The early summer period includes melliferous plants that bloom from the last days of May, early June, and until the time of blooming of white clover. At this time, meadow grasses and agricultural plants massively join the trees and shrubs.
Sage meadow – a typical representative of meadow flora, color from May to September. The yield of nectar is up to 100 kilograms per hectare. However, it is difficult to extract honey from it – the bees have to climb deep into the flowers.
CapryPhil – the climbing variety of honeysuckle blooms in early summer for three weeks. This shrub provides 20 to 50 kilograms of honey per hectare.
Barberry throws flowers from the second decade of May, and blooms for two to three weeks. In terms of honey productivity, the Thunberg variety is in the lead – up to 230 kilograms of nectar per hectare of plantations.
Honey plants in June (in the middle lane) are listed below:
Flowers raspberries appear in early June. Flowering lasts up to a month. In favorable years, strong hives bring from 5 to 10-14 kg of nectar per day.
Lucerne sowing blooms in the second year of life in June. Flowering lasts a month, and the release of nectar directly depends on the moisture content of the soil. With watering, this is about 200-250 kilograms of nectar per hectare. Without irrigation, bribes will be more modest – up to 50 kg.
Motherwort Is another early summer honey plant that blooms in June. It is interesting for beekeepers because in drought conditions it can produce 200-240 kilograms of marketable honey per hectare. This perennial wild plant can be specially bred on uncomfortable lands near apiaries. Some of the sown seeds germinate and bloom already in the first year of life.
Hawthorn blooms in May – June. Duration of nectar excretion is up to 15 days. The plant is used, among other things, for the formation of hedges. Nectar productivity 80-100 kg.
Rowan blooms in May-June, providing bee colonies with a good bribe of nectar and pollen. Can be used to enclose apiaries with a live fence. The most decorative in appearance is chokeberry and common mountain ash. Bees bring 30-40 kilograms of nectar from a hectare of dense plantations.
The buckthorn is fragile May-June honey plant. Productivity is low, especially when snow falls in autumn on unfrozen soil. On average, 15-30 kilograms of nectar.
On a note! In early summer, it is customary to limit the egg-laying of the uterus (about a month before the end of the bribe, provided that there is a period of several weeks before the next honey collection).
Honey collection in summer
Summer honey collection is considered the main bribe. This is the period from early to mid June to the third decade of July. This is the end of the active beekeeping season in many regions.
Collecting nectar in summer begins with white (creeping) clover… It blooms for over a month. Productivity is about 100 kilograms. Other varieties of this plant also provide a large amount of pollen and nectar.
Read about this in the article: Clover and its benefits for apiaries
Various field weeds bloom:
Different varieties of sow thistle, the inflorescences of which are visited by flight bees in the morning. They give from 350 to 380 kilograms of marketable honey per hectare.
Cornflower meadow and field (blue)secreting nectar even in dry years. Both varieties bloom for about a month. Nectar productivity from 30-40 (blue) to 100-130 kg (meadow) per hectare.
The best honey plants of central Russia also bloom in the midst of summer – these are:
Small-leaved linden – the queen of the summer bribe, giving a valuable and very popular variety of honey on the market. Nectar productivity per hectare in warm weather is from 600 to 1 kilograms. The flowering period is 000-10 days from the beginning of July.
Mustard, blooming for three weeks in June-July. For the white variety, bribes are about 100-150 kilograms. This is one of the main melliferous plants.
Blooming Sally, blooming more abundantly and more productively in the northern regions of the middle zone, gives up to 350 kilograms of nectar. Flowering lasts 30-35 days. In a rainy summer, honey production will be lower. The scorching sun also adversely affects this grass – the nectar thickens strongly, becoming inaccessible to flying bees.
Sowing buckwheat – not so much a strong honey plant as a plant popular with beekeepers and buyers thanks to its delicious variety of honey. In the heat, the productivity of the cereal decreases markedly. But in good weather, bee colonies bring 8-9 kilograms of honey per day. Flowering is long – on average 30-40 days. Nectar productivity from 50 to 150 kg.
If linden is the last summer honey plant in the region, the wear of the uterus is also limited one month before the end of the flow. If buckwheat fields are blooming or there is some other abundant bribe from local plants, this does not need to be done, since the nests will be prematurely weakened.
Late summer honey harvest
This period is a natural continuation of the summer bribe. Therefore, the division is very arbitrary, more associated with the characteristics of the development of bees.
Important! If the peak of development of bee colonies has not yet passed, and there are bribes in nature, it is recommended not to limit their reproduction (dividing grids are not installed).
Late summer honey plants include everything that blooms after lindens:
1) red clover – from 10 to 20 kg;
2) spring rapeseed – from 30 to 90 kg;
3) buckwheat – from 50 to 150 kg;
4) alfalfa – from 50 to 200 (for watering);
5) donnik – from 200 to 500 kg;
6) thyme (thyme) – from 40 to 180 kg;
7) angelica (angelica) – from 60 to 280 kg, depending on the variety (forestry is more productive);
8) mordovnik (ball-headed, ordinary) – from 30 to 340 kg;
9) sage – from 100 to 300 kg, depending on the variety (whorled or annular variety is more productive);
10) peppermint – up to 200 kg.
Honey harvest in autumn
This period includes melliferous plants that bloom from about mid-summer to the third decade of August and bloom until about mid-September.
It is not recommended to completely pump out the honey obtained at this time, since any mistake can lead to poor wintering of bee colonies.
The list of autumn melliferous plants is modest:
The main place among them is heatherblooming from mid-July and blooming until late autumn. Beekeepers note that the bee colonies, taken out on bribes to continuous heather plantations, leave in winter stronger than those remaining at the point of the stationary apiary. The nectar productivity of the shrub per hectare is about 150-200 kilograms.
Goldenrod (golden rod) throws out inflorescences by the end of June and secretes nectar until September. Provides a good supportive bribe with sufficient humidity. Honey on an industrial scale is pumped out mainly only in Canada and Poland (from 150 kg per hectare).
Phacelia blue gives up to 50 kg of nectar. Vigorous flowering lasts up to three weeks. And this green manure is sown in the spring in two or three doses with a two-week interval.
The leaders in terms of the territory they occupy, sufficient to obtain honey, are as follows:
1)Linen common… Occurs in fields, meadows, along roads. It is a secondary melliferous plant. Blooms until late summer, starting in June.
2)Thistle – a biennial wild plant, literally dotted with flowers. One plant can collect up to 2,4 g of pollen. The flowers release nectar for almost two months until late autumn.
3)Mouse peasblooming from June to September and producing up to 70 kg of nectar per hectare.
In order to make the most of the autumn bribe, care should be taken in advance to continue laying eggs, possibly through the use of spare queens. The main thing is to protect the bee colonies from weakening before hibernation (bees often die at late nectar harvests).
Oddly enough, but it is the late honey harvest that helps prepare the apiary for the next year – there will be an adequate supply of bee bread in the nests, the families will rejuvenate. Well, the beekeeper will be relieved of the need to give out late feeding, thereby exhausting the bee colonies with a small number of flying insects, and will even receive some volume of marketable honey.
