Broad Beans, Vicia faba

Broad Beans, Vicia faba, is a major source of nectar and pollen for the Honey Bee.  A very important factor in favour of  B. beans is early flowering especially when they are autumn sown.  Farmers and gardeners often choose to sow an autumn crop to occupy the land during the winter, to produce an early crop and to avoid major infestation by the dreaded blackfly.  The nectar and pollen produced early in the year give the Bees and other pollinating insects, notably Bumble bees, an early start in building a strong colony and storing surplus honey.  If the Beekeeper is fortunate enough to be near a farm that sows Feild Beans as a forage crop there may well be a surplus of honey for the Beekeeper, when the beans are sown as green manure however, they are ploughed in before they flower.

Barry