How to Create a Bee Pasture

This field, filled with flowering plants, is indicative of how your finished bee pasture might look.

Starting sometime before the end of the 20th century, honey bees began dying off in large numbers due to colony collapse disorder (CCD). This, combined with a rise in interest toward beekeeping and organic lifestyles, has led toward people trying to make changes that will help these ecologically crucial pollinators survive. An entire third of our food would not exist without pollinators like bees so it is in our best interest to help them.



A bee pasture is a simple home addition whether you live in a city or rural area. Large acreage works best, but if you live in an apartment, adding window boxes with flowers that attract pollinators is an equally good step. Rather than keeping gardens full of grass, try wildflowers or natural grasses, which help both animal and insect populations.

Things You'll Need

• land to plant in
• seeds
• source of water

Instructions

1. Decide if you want your bee pasture to flower annually or to be more long-term. You can plant things like clover or wildflowers that might need reseeding every year. For a bee pasture that will last longer with minimal effort, plant perennial flowers or shrubs that will bloom for multiple seasons. If you are looking for a permanent change to your landscape, look into flowering trees.

2. Look into cost. Though a field of annual wildflowers requires you to pay for seeds every year, planting annuals is initially cheaper than purchasing a field's worth of saplings. If the land is yours for more than a few years and the startup money isn't hard to come by, a long-term bee pasture with perrennials is ultimately the cheapest option in time and labor. As years pass, the land will more or less take care of itself, especially with your bees as pollinators.

3. Keep the bee pasture entirely free of pesticides and insecticides. These chemicals that kill unwanted pests also harm pollinators, making them more susceptible to disease and parasites like the varroa mite. Though the cause of CCD is not certain, many theories point to pesticides as having a helping hand in the collapse of many hives around the world.

4. Consider setting up your own beehive. It is an excellent source of honey and considered a relaxing pursuit by many. Of course, if your bee pasture is flowering, pollinators will find it regardless. With such a close store of chemical-free flowers, why not have your own bees "grazing" on the land.

   You can also find local beekeepers and allow them to put their own hives up. The health of many trees and flowers on a bee pasture is determined by the number of pollinators. Few apiarists will pass up an opportunity to house their bees, getting rid of the start up cost and learning curve if you wanted to start your own hive.

References

• UGA Honey Bee Program: Establishing a Bee Pasture
• Beekeeping: Small Scale Beekeeping
• The Courier Tribune: "Setting Up a Bee Pasture"
• CNN: "Pollinator Decline Puts World Food Supply at Risk, Experts Warn"