CHAPTER V 
SOURCES OF NECTAR 
Iw taking up bee-keeping as a business, it is a matter of the 
utmost importance to select a location where suitable plants are 
available during as long a season as possible. The greater the 
variety of honey-producing plants the better. There is no single 
plant that can be depended upon to produce nectar in sufficient 
quantities every year. The ideal location is one where there is 
an abundance of willow, maple, dandelion, and fruit bloom early 
in spring, followed by white clover and sweet clover in abund- 
ance. This in turn should be supplemented with such plants as 
heartsease, sunflowers, golden rod, and asters for late forage. 
There are many things to be considered in choosing a location, 
that will not be apparent at first glance. For instance, some 
plant may be present in quantity that is ordinarily considered 
as a profitable source of nectar, yet which for some unknown 
reason seldom yields in a particular localitv. Alfalfa is a 
valuable plant for the apiarist under the conditions of the irri- 
gated regions of the West, vet seldom secretes sufficient nectar to 
attract the bees in the moist sections east of the Missouri River. 
Buckwheat is rated as an important honey plant in New York, 
but is of little value in most Jowa localities. When the bulletin, 
“Bee-keeping in Towa,” which was published as No. 11 of the 
extension department of Iowa State College of Agriculture, was 
in preparation, correspondence with representative bee-keepers 
in all parts of that State brought only one report of buckwheat as 
a profitable source of nectar. Bee-keepers, reading of the wonder- 
ful crops of honey stored from buckwheat in some eastern States, 
might easily be misled into expecting similar results from this 
plant wherever a sufficient acreage was present. 
Just what factors influence the secretion of nectar still remain 
to be determined. It is a well-known fact that some plants secrete 
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