Lavender field honey

by Wade Hampton
(Dept. Vaucluse, Provence, France )

I have a few hives here in the south of France for home use.

Here about 300 yards from my house there are a lot of lavender fields which one can get a fair production of honey over a two week period before they cut it mid July. In fact they are cutting just now.

There are a lot of spring flowers, red poppies and wild bush and trees beginning with almond but then it is pretty much over after the lavender is cut and things get dry as the rest of the farming area is mostly wheat.

There are many hectares of squash and melon but probably four or so miles away and my bees simply don't seem excited about anything by the end of July.

I have my own melon plants on about half an acre but the bees only like the male flower so I don't get quick sets of watermelon and cantaloupe varieties since the lavender is always in bloom at the same time.

So I was wondering why no mention of lavender as a major attraction for all types of bees.

Best regards and thanks for the info -- good site.

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Wade, good point about lavender being a good bee plant, because it is, along with others not mentioned here, but unless you live in the South of France, where lavender is produced by the hectare, it really is not a plant that is common to most.

I have bees and lavender here on my farm in Italy and they don't seem too excited about it this side! Last year they couldn't get enough of the Acacia flowers of the Black Locust, this year they weren't interested!

I guess we have a lot to learn about the bee and what honey plants they like from time to time. The honey plants mentioned in the article are ones that they seem to like most of the time, and are fairly common to all.

However, thank you for your valuable contribution, and looking forward to hearing from others around the world who have found plants in their garden useful for honey bees.

Regards
Kathryn