Screening of Potential Shrubs for Bee Forage Development

Availability of adequate honeybee forage plants is very important for honey production. The study was therefore conducted to screen the best performing bee forages from five plant species with a view to selecting for honey production for high and mid land agro-ecologies. The planting materials were Vernonia amygdalina, Buddleja polystachya, Callistemon citrinus, Dovyalis caffra and Chamecytisus proliferus. The species were evaluated based on the number of flower heads per plants, foraging intensity of honeybees, flowering length and amount of pollen. C. citrinus, C. proliferus and V. amygdalina were set flower with the ranges of two to three and half years while B. polystachya, and D. caffra didn’t reach to set flower up to the end of five years. V. amygdalina and C. proliferus provides significantly higher pollen compared to C. citrinus. Average number of flower heads per plant were highest for C. proliferus and it was significantly different (p<0.05) from the rest. The flowering time of C. citrinus, C. proliferus and V. amygdalina are almost during the dearth period at which only a few bee forage plant species in flower around the area. V. amygdalina and C. citrinus was highly foraged by honeybees from 10:00am-12:00 am, while C. proliferus 10:00 am -2:00pm. C. citrinus has the highest flowering time with duration up to six months in a blooming state having lots of flower heads and the rest months with few flowers. Generally, the study revealed that C. citrinus, C. proliferus and V. amygdalina were selected as major bee forage plants. However, it requires further evaluation particularly on nectar volume and sugar concentration for these plants and their integration with watershed development is recommended. Since they were flowered in dearth period and their further multiplication is recommended to increase honey production.