Hairy vetch
A winter-hardy forage and cover crop whose purple racemes and stipule nectaries attract bees; a valuable late-spring source in cereal mixes.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0.5-1.5 m
- Life cycle
- Annual
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Hairy vetch is an important forage and green manure crop in Turkey, sown mixed with cereals. Because its flower tube is long, honey bees cannot always reach the nectar fully, but the dark-spotted extrafloral nectaries on its stipules are visited very often. Sometimes nectar is also taken through holes that wild bees have bitten in the base of the flower.
Flowering
It blooms from May to July in long racemes, lasting 3-5 weeks depending on the region. With autumn sowing, flowering falls in the gap between black locust and sunflower.
Honey and pollen
A separate vetch honey is uncommon; it contributes to light-coloured spring-summer multifloral honeys. Its pollen contribution is moderate.
Note for the beekeeper
Mowing the field at full bloom cuts off the source for bees at a stroke; discuss the mowing date with the farmer. Strips left as a cover crop form a valuable forage belt around the apiary.