Title: Strategic integration of pasture legumes into agricultural systems provides stability to honey bee populations and associated industries
Abstract: Humans and honey bees have a long history of interaction to yield valued products such as edible honey and ecosystem services. However, honey bees are under pressure from changes in vegetation, agricultural practices such as pesticide use and climate change. We investigated if pasture legumes can be harnessed to support honey bees. We found that many southern Australian pasture legumes could provide significant floral resources as well as enhanced temporal and spatial stability for honey bees due to phenological variability and broad adaptation. Honey bees recognise and are attracted to their flowers and other characteristics are comparable, or potentially superior, to red and white clover, such as floret number per inflorescence, floret length, nectar volume and sucrose-dominance and pollen protein. The floral resource diversity from pasture legume mixes could aid honey bee health and support pollinator services for adjacent crops. We used a diverse set of species that originated from the Mediterranean and western Europe but are now developed as commercial cultivars for the southern Australian livestock industries. The stodgy found that pasture legumes show great promise as a means to support honey bees and reduce the need for pesticide use.
