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Thanks guys.

Any ling buds showing colour yet near you at Blaenafon, Swarm?

Hi JBM, Can I ask you once again for Intel on the heather season? How is the ling heather progressing - is there any colour on the hill near you yet? Just planning my trip to the Blaenavon area (for the 12th year).

I spoke to a local botanist - it is sainfoin, apparently.

Can anybody identify this leguminous plant sown into arable stubbles? It's quite different from the red clovers growing wild or sown here. Appears to be part of conservation planting scheme. Is it a prolific nectar-producer?

Thanks for the heads-up Murray, it is always enjoyable and informative reading your comments on the heather seasons and comparing notes. Flowering seemed to start a little later this year and rain eventually came to rescue in the Blaenavon area too, but it will still be a below-average year...

Steve, not great at my heather site near Blaenavon either due, I think, to low rainfall in the critical month of July, which parched the heather that grows over the old spoil heaps. That leaves just the heather on undisturbed peat, which didn't look too bad around July 25th. But not expecting a...

Green rather than brown on heather in Abergavenny area, but only where on moisture retentive peat or moss soils. Buds ok but still a week off florets opening. I'm taking a handful of hives, should be OK though. JBs hill: might need to wait to hear from him as to cause of brown-ness, and whether...

Where heather is on peat or moss, the buds are OK, but still a week or so off opening. Usually one can find solitary plants in full bloom ahead of the others, but so far behind this season I could only find one across 2 or 3 acres. Where heather is over spoil workings (gravel) the plants have no...

Brown and barren doesn't sound encouraging! Thanks for the observation: I think I'll drive over to Abergavenny area, possibly tomorrow, to see if our usual site is similarly affected. If it too is brown and parched, I'd better find another site pdq.

Long =“ling" (blinkin' autocorrect!)

Hi JB, how is the ling heather blossom near you just now? Still at the bud stage like the long plant in my garden at 200 feet above sea level?

Rape is in flower here in Worcestershire also pears, apples, currants, blackthorn, sycamore. Plums are finishing, horse chestnut about to open.

I did, when I started, using wbc inners, but soon moved on to Nationals. It's in use at the roadside - I put my honey for sale in the porch area at the front of the hive! Can one still buy the 15 frame inner boxes anywhere?

Self employed Software trainer since '87, currently remote training radiology consultants to report scans from home. Previously research fellow (agricultural economics) Reading uni, and Lincoln College, NZ. Along the way tried law cost drafting, spreadsheet apps developer, design/build/launch...

G Great news JB, especially after your earlier thoughts re the wildfire damage to heather near you. Could it be that the natural response to adversity, the compensatory growth principle, is giving a kick to re-colonise and regenerate the space left by the burnt heather? Hope it turns out well...

Somerford, how did your heather hives look?

Weather forecast looks good for heather moors on Blorenge this next few days. The ling seemed late this year in that part of S Wales, and I'm just hoping that there is enough soil moisture for a decent flow. Murray's twitter report from Scotland shows the ling flow started earlier, last week I...

Had one this year on a demaree where I left the top bbox over an excluder but with no top entrance. The virgin had hatched, slipped out through the excluder, flown and mated successfully, returning back up through the excluder to start laying. She is very dark and large now in full lay...

I am sorry to hear that JB, so no heather until hopefully it recovers for next year. A burn should invigorate old heather plants as on the managed grouse moors with a beneficial effect on bloom for a few yeats beyond that.