In the Estonian case study of EFFECT project (CS9), we analyse the agricultural support for growing honey bee forage crops. Under the contract, farmers have to grow three flower crops as a mosaic landscape to ensure the nectar production line over the season. However, there seems to be some kind of obstacles in the system. For that, first, information collection and round-table discussion were carried out during the Corona-19 pandemics in electronic channels. Now, more practical self-experiences will be collected to understand farmers and the crop ecology.
This spring of 2021 we sow a bit more than 2 km of flowers to present to farmers and the public that honey bee forage crops can be grown in ordinary fields with no special care. At the same time, we test whether bees appreciate such a simple fast snack. We use several traditional forage flower crops as well as commercially available seed mixture of multiple species. More than 15 farmers provided their field margins for these functional flower strips. We are now waiting for the flowers to open to collect further results and proceed with the experiment.
