Bees collect nectar, pollen and a sticky substance from various plants, then process them into honey, propolis and bee bread. The plants visited by these insects are called honey plants. They differ in productivity, value and seasonal factor.
Honey plants and flowers
There are a lot of honey plants and flowers. Among them there are both annual and perennial representatives. Of this diversity, particularly important species should be highlighted.
Heather
This flowering plant is an autumn honey plant. From one hectare collect up to 100 kg of honey.
Heather honey is characterized by a dark reddish or brownish color, a bitter taste and a strong aroma. Due to the high content of protein substances, the product does not crystallize during long-term storage, but coagulates to a jelly state. After pumping, it immediately takes on the consistency of jelly.
Heather honey is useful for colds, urolithiasis, and cystitis.
Buckwheat
This herbaceous culture is called sowing, ordinary or edible. It is placed first among honey plants in most Russian regions.
Under favorable conditions, one hectare sown with buckwheat can provide up to 80 kg of honey. This area requires 2-3 bee colonies. Insects collect raw materials all August.
The flowers of the plant give the bees nectar and greenish-yellow pollen in large quantities. Buckwheat honey is characterized by a dark color and a special taste. The composition of the product is rich in iron, has high antiseptic properties.
Donnik
White and yellow melilot are valued as honey plants. The plant is attractively long flowering, which begins in July, and ends only in late autumn. Melilot can produce up to 600 kg of honey per hectare.
Melilot honey has a light color, delicate texture, a pleasant aroma and excellent taste. The fresh product has a light watery color. It crystallizes quickly, becoming white or light amber and has a delicate vanilla aroma.
Melilot honey is saturated with glucose, useful for the central nervous system, and is a stimulator of lactation.
Goldenrod
This herbaceous plant is a late summer or autumn honey plant. It is highly regarded for providing a winter supply of pollen and honey. The plant’s honey productivity is moderate - one hectare of plantings can produce up to 120 kg of honey.
The product can be dark yellow or light brown with a red tint. Goldenrod honey has a peculiar aroma and a bitter aftertaste.
Due to its healing properties, the product is used in the treatment of the bladder, liver, and dermatitis.
Ivan tea (fireweed)
This herbaceous perennial is a summer honey plant. Its honey productivity can be up to 600 kg per hectare. Blooming fireweed is observed in June-July and lasts about 40 days.
Honey is characterized by transparency, a greenish color and a delicate aroma. It crystallizes to a creamy white mass. It turns yellow when heated.
In traditional medicine, the product is valued for its soothing and anti-inflammatory properties.
Clover
This plant is one of the best honey plants. Its productivity can reach 200 kg per hectare. The main flowering period is observed in June-July.
The product obtained from clover is attractive in rich amber color and strong aroma. By consistency, it is malleable.
Coriander
The product obtained from this herbaceous annual is called coriander or kolyander. The plant is a summer honey plant and usually blooms in June. From one hectare you can get up to 200 kg.
Coriander honey is transparent, it can have a light brown or amber color. The flavor of the product is varied. Due to the high content of essential oils, the smell of the product is spicy and harsh. The taste of honey is specific, it has a medicinal-caramel flavor.
Coriander honey has many healing properties. It is useful for digestion, treats gastrointestinal diseases, restores appetite. The product has antiseptic, analgesic and bronchodilator properties.
Dandelion
This herbaceous perennial is called ordinary, field, medicinal, pharmacy. From one hectare you can collect an average of 4.5 kg of honey. Flowering occurs mainly in May-June.
Dandelion honey is thick and golden yellow. The product crystallizes quickly, has a strong odor and a peculiar pungent taste.
Dandelion honey has no market value - in the spring it is eaten by bees. The product is also a feed supplement for adult brood insects.
Sow thistle
This herbaceous perennial is called field, yellow, euphorbiaceae. The plant is considered weed, blooms in the summer-autumn period. Sow thistle is characterized by high honey productivity - about 400 kg of product can be collected from one hectare.
Sow honey has a white or light yellow color and tastes good. The product belongs to first-class.
Honeycomb honey is valued for its nutritional properties. In folk medicine, it is most often used as a remedy for exhaustion, especially in the postoperative period in children and the elderly.
Sunflower
This herbaceous annual is a source of not only seeds, but also honey. From one hectare collect up to 50 kg of product. Flowering lasts an average of 30 days and falls on July-August.
One should distinguish between annual sunflower and tuberous, although it is also a honey plant.
In liquid form, the product has excellent taste. Sunflower honey crystallizes quickly, acquiring a light amber color. Sometimes a greenish tint is observed. Crystallized honey has a weak aroma and pleasant taste with tart notes.
Sunflower honey is characterized by high enzymatic activity. He has valuable dietary qualities, restorative and diuretic properties.
Rape
This herbaceous annual is an early spring honey plant in autumn sowing. Winter rapeseed provides a medical productivity of 60-90 kg per hectare.
Rapeseed honey has a whitish or yellowish color, a very sweet taste and a special aroma. The density of the product is very high, it crystallizes quickly. The process of crystal formation can begin already in cells. The formed crystals have a white color, persistent floral aroma and astringent taste.
Rapeseed honey means special storage conditions, as it can quickly turn sour. The product is high in glucose, which is useful for brain activity. Rapeseed honey is useful for bone structures and the liver, and helps to remove heavy metals from the body.
Common bruise
This herbaceous plant is a valuable summer honey plant. On one hectare, you can get up to 800 kg of honey.
The product obtained from the common bruise is top-notch. It differs in light or light amber color. The product has a pleasant taste and a slight aroma. Honey has a thick consistency, slowly crystallizes - this forms a fine-grained cage.
Honey from an ordinary bruise is useful for the cardiovascular system, has a calming effect.
Phacelia
This herbaceous annual is one of the best honey plants. One hectare of crops can provide half a ton of honey. With proper organization of sowing, flowering lasts almost all summer.
The product obtained from this plant has a sweet, tart and spicy taste. The color may be different - pale yellow, pale green or pale blue. When thickened, the mass usually has a white color and a pasty texture.
In the composition of such honey there are many vitamins and minerals. Most of all it contains potassium, chromium, calcium, zinc, manganese, cobalt and silver.
Chistyak
This herbaceous plant is also popularly called the frog. He is an early spring honey plant. Bees willingly fly to this plant. From one hectare you can get up to 15 kg of product.
Honey shrubs and trees
Among plants of this type, honeybirds are usually shrubs or small trees. Their distinctive feature is that they all belong to perennials.
Barberry
This honey plant usually grows in the form of a bush, trees are less common. Provides a large amount of nectar in May-June. From one hectare you can collect up to 80 kg of product. In this case, honey productivity from such an area is more than 23 kg.
Barberry honey has a light yellow color, delicate and sweet taste. The aroma is felt notes of spring flowers. The product has medium viscosity.
Barberry honey has many healing properties. It is useful for the stomach and intestines, the genitourinary system, provides an antibacterial effect. The product perfectly tones and has anti-inflammatory properties.
Hawthorn
Such trees and shrubs belong to late spring honey plants and are attractive to bees. Their honey productivity is moderate and can be up to 80 kg per hectare.
Flowering hawthorn lasts only a week and a half - in late spring and early June. During this period, the plant exudes an unpleasant odor, which insects do not pay attention to.
Hawthorn honey has a dark color with a reddish tint and a slight bitterness in the taste. The product is highly regarded for its healing properties, it is especially useful for the cardiovascular system.
Lingonberry
This evergreen shrub provides bees with supporting bribes. From one hectare of plantings, you can get up to 50 kg of honey. Flowering lasts about 2 weeks and begins in late May.
Lingonberry honey is a natural remedy.
Quacker
This shrub can bring up to 700 kg of honey per hectare. One bee family can collect more than 5 kg of nectar from this plant per day. It begins to bloom in late June.
Honeymoon honey has a special aroma and delicate taste. The color is very light, sometimes yellowish. When pumped out in dry weather, the product is heated due to its severity and density.
There is one negative trait of the quillage - the legs of insects can be jammed with pollen pockets of flowers. If the bee cannot get free, it will die, at best it will remain crippled.
Yellow Acacia (Tree-Caragana)
This shrub is the main honey plant of the early bribe. From one hectare you can collect up to 300 kg of product.
Acacia honey is characterized by transparency and light color, a pleasant aroma. It is attractive due to the absence of bitterness characteristic of other varieties. The product does not crystallize for a long time and can remain in liquid form throughout the year. He is often valued more than linden honey.
Acacia honey is easily digested, has pronounced antiseptic properties, promotes digestion, does not cause allergic reactions.
Willow
This woody plant is also called willow, crab, talnik, and lozina. As a honey plant, the plant attracts with early flowering, and in different species it occurs at different times, which allows you to stretch the pollen collection period.
A hectare of such landings can provide up to 200 kg of honey. Usually it is used for the development of bee colonies, but it also happens in commercial quality.
Chestnut
This tree is a spring honey plant and provides bees with not only pollen and nectar, but also a sticky liquid. A distinctive feature of the plant is the color change of the speckles on the flowers from yellow to red. After such changes, the bees do not fly to the plant.
Chestnut flowering lasts about 2 weeks in May-June. The number of flowers and medical productivity depends on air temperature. From one hectare an average of 25 kg of product is obtained.
Chestnut honey is characterized by its liquid structure, dark brown color and transparency. It crystallizes slowly, remaining in a liquid state until spring. This does not apply to horse chestnut - the product obtained from it crystallizes instantly.
Chestnut honey has excellent bactericidal properties, which are often used in the treatment of respiratory tract pathologies.
Hazel
These shrubs and trees are also called hazel or hazelnut. This plant is not only a source of nuts, but also an excellent forest honey plant.
Hazel attracts with early flowering - it begins in late April, and in some regions in February. The plant gives a lot of pollen, which is procured for the future for winter and early spring feeding of insects. In good weather, bees are put out from the winter hut to collect pollen, stimulating brood cultivation.
Linden
This tree is one of the most important summer honey plants. From one hectare, 700 kg of honey can be collected, but the plant's productivity depends on the weather and the age of planting.
The quality and type of linden honey vary by region. The product may be clear, colorless or light yellow. It has a sweet taste and pronounced aroma. Bitterness is characteristic of wild forest honey. A distinctive feature of the lime product is fast crystallization with loss of transparency and the acquisition of a coarse-grained structure.
Blueberries
This shrub is a spring-summer honey plant and is valued mainly for providing a supportive bribe. Honey production per hectare can reach 50-80 kg.
Blueberry honey is characterized by transparency, pleasant taste and a special aroma. It has a light color and a reddish tint. The product is valued for its dietary and medicinal properties. Its use provides the elimination of toxins and radioactive elements from the body.
Bird cherry
These low trees are spring nectarines and dust-bearing plants. Honey production per hectare is low - up to 20 kg.
Bird cherry honey has attractive healing properties. It strengthens the circulatory system, normalizes intestinal function, and relieves inflammation. The vitamin composition of the product is useful for strengthening immunity.
There are many honey plants. Often, those representatives of the flora that are considered ordinary weeds are distinguished by high honey productivity. Honey obtained from various plants differs in taste, viscosity, color, aroma. Regardless of the source, this product has healing properties, but each plant has its own.