8.5 degree's and bringing in pollen.

[maddydog]

feel very proud to be called a descent beekeeper.

no offence but RAB will be giggling at that typo

 

[thedozzer]

Back on topic, it was only around 7c this morning and pissing it down but the 2 hives were flying, some had drowned on the landing board so not sure if it was just poo flights, its only 10c this afternoon and bees from both hives & nucs are returning with cream & orange pollen.

 

[Curly green fingers]

I think I'll carry a dictionary with me always is that descent enough maddydog!
Johnny I'm bumbling on the weekend hopefully if the weather permits . And will let you know what's happening .
Thedozzer do you think the pollen was Hawthorne and dandelion ?
I've now come to the conclusion that the bee's in the garden haven't been traveling 2 miles for the rape but collecting dandelion pollen and nectar right under my nose .
It's taken me two seasons to work that one out.
Spending as much time observing where they forage and entrance observations have played a good part in me understanding the colours of pollen on bee's and I'm sure I'll never stop learning.
Cheers

 

[thedozzer]

Thedozzer do you think the pollen was Hawthorne and dandelion ?
I've now come to the conclusion that the bee's in the garden haven't been traveling 2 miles for the rape but collecting dandelion pollen and nectar right under my nose .
It's taken me two seasons to work that one out.
Spending as much time observing where they forage and entrance observations have played a good part in me understanding the colours of pollen on bee's and I'm sure I'll never stop learning.
Cheers

Dont think it will be dandelion as they are mainly seed heads at the moment and not many flowers and the OSR is on the turn, Definitely Hawthorne as its all out including 2 large bushes 50ft from the hives, we are on the edge of quite a large village and there is a lot of ceanothus, Mexican Orange Blossom and other flowering shrubs so they are a bit spoilt. they were brining in quite a bit of light blue pollen last week, can only imagine it was bluebell?

Rob

 

[Beefriendly]

If you really want to know what they have been foraging on you need a microscope and start to examine what pollen's are present in the honey.
After 20 years of studying different pollen's from honey.... I think I'm starting to get somewhere
The number of pollen's I still cannot definitively identify is still too many....they forage on the most amazing things.
I must join this pollen DNA analysis scheme and see what they find in my honey.

 

[Millet]

Do you have wild cherry trees in your area mine have been bringing light coloured pollen also as well as yellow rape pollen..wild cherry is the only other forage that i know about at the moment..

 

[Swarm]

Dont think it will be dandelion as they are mainly seed heads at the moment and not many flowers and the OSR is on the turn, Definitely Hawthorne as its all out including 2 large bushes 50ft from the hives, we are on the edge of quite a large village and there is a lot of ceanothus, Mexican Orange Blossom and other flowering shrubs so they are a bit spoilt. they were brining in quite a bit of light blue pollen last week, can only imagine it was bluebell?

Rob

Do you have a lot of Spanish Bluebells in your gardens? British Bluebells have cream coloured pollen.

 

[Murox]

Dont think it will be dandelion as they are mainly seed heads at the moment and not many flowers and the OSR is on the turn, Definitely Hawthorne as its all out including 2 large bushes 50ft from the hives, we are on the edge of quite a large village and there is a lot of ceanothus, Mexican Orange Blossom and other flowering shrubs so they are a bit spoilt. they were brining in quite a bit of light blue pollen last week, can only imagine it was bluebell?

Rob

It all depends on where you live . I've dandelions a plenty an other small meadow flowers; hawthorn is around but as always is fickle in flowering habits. I think up hear we must be at least 3 weeks behind a lot of you guys.

 

[Curly green fingers]

Excellent news! Hurrah for all that is curly, green and fingered....

PS Now can we get on with the ignoring the droll moans of the nether world and back to writing and reading about bumbling about in the apiary?

no offence but RAB will be giggling at that typo

Back on topic, it was only around 7c this morning and pissing it down but the 2 hives were flying, some had drowned on the landing board so not sure if it was just poo flights, its only 10c this afternoon and bees from both hives & nucs are returning with cream & orange pollen.

If you really want to know what they have been foraging on you need a microscope and start to examine what pollen's are present in the honey.
After 20 years of studying different pollen's from honey.... I think I'm starting to get somewhere
The number of pollen's I still cannot definitively identify is still too many....they forage on the most amazing things.
I must join this pollen DNA analysis scheme and see what they find in my honey.

I would be very interested in the DNA scheme also more so for my home apairy if you have any information .

 

[thedozzer]

Do you have a lot of Spanish Bluebells in your gardens? British Bluebells have cream coloured pollen.

Definitely native bluebells as our garden is part of an old orchard that's been on the maps for about 300 years, and we have never planted any, so dont know what the light blue pollen was then but just had a look at pollen chart again and could be hazel?

It all depends on where you live . I've dandelions a plenty an other small meadow flowers; hawthorn is around but as always is fickle in flowering habits. I think up hear we must be at least 3 weeks behind a lot of you guys.

this is one of the Hawthorn bushes about 40-50ft from the hives, its about half the height of the oak tree in the corner and currently smells a lot. thankfully its one of the things the girls have to fly over to leave the garden so they don't bother anyone.

 

[Murox]

I think I am envious.

 

[Curly green fingers]

I bet that's a site watching the girls fly over that how far away from the hive/s is the tree ??
Is that this year's photo ? ( Thedozzer)
Your oak tree is alot more in leaf than up here in South shrops..
Murox what will be your honey flows with you ?

 

[thedozzer]

I bet that's a site watching the girls fly over that how far away from the hive/s is the tree ??
Is that this year's photo ? ( Thedozzer)
Your oak tree is alot more in leaf than up here in South shrops..
Murox what will be your honey flows with you ?

took the pic about an hour ago to show Murox how much the Hawthorn is in flower down here, his time will come
Our garden is surrounded by trees and the only place the girls can fly out the garden bellow about 18ft is over the neighbours fence/hedge and that's 8ft, so you can sit and watch them slowly spiral upward before flying of in all but one direction, its quite a good way to work out what direction they are going.
we are 51.66deg N

 

[Curly green fingers]

It's much the same here but still lots to come out the Hawthorne I mean , i was walking the dogs over the common and noticed female willow still flowering .
My garden has a big hedge behind the hives 15ft high mainly Holly and a 6ft stone wall in front about 10 ft so they have to spiral out of the garden but when they return it's like a plane coming into land over the wall very funny to watch sometimes.

 

[Murox]

I bet that's a site watching the girls fly over that how far away from the hive/s is the tree ??
Is that this year's photo ? ( Thedozzer)
Your oak tree is alot more in leaf than up here in South shrops..
Murox what will be your honey flows with you ?

What I do not have in the area are fields of OSR or even grand hedges boasting buckthorn and hawthorn, they get blasted to bits by wind. What I do have is smaller, spread out over their flying range, wild forage. Most fields are devoted to livestock or specific varieties of barley and oats – so not much there. A hillside next door has been planted up with mixed woodland, but its only 2 years old. However the natural flora that has been dormant is beginning to grow. Stuff like Rosebay Willow Herb, Dandelions, Teasels, Thistles are all available. Trees in range are willow, birch, sycamore, conifers inevitably and some scrubby hawthorn. There is plenty of gorse around and also the hillside nearby is covered in ragwort, some bramble and a fair bit of low growing meadow flowers. I have only identified coltsfoot, gentians & campanulas – there is more. I have spread some borage and other useful seeds about and planted a couple of trees for early pollen and last year a nearby farm had planted a small quantity of sunflowers, the roadside verges are left long mostly too. So there is stuff to be had, but the weather needs to be kind, otherwise flows are very sporadic. The local association reported that a couple of years ago they were unable to take any honey off at all as the weather that summer had been so grim - but I'm still smiling.

 

[Curly green fingers]

What I do not have in the area are fields of OSR or even grand hedges boasting buckthorn and hawthorn, they get blasted to bits by wind. What I do have is smaller, spread out over their flying range, wild forage. Most fields are devoted to livestock or specific varieties of barley and oats – so not much there. A hillside next door has been planted up with mixed woodland, but its only 2 years old. However the natural flora that has been dormant is beginning to grow. Stuff like Rosebay Willow Herb, Dandelions, Teasels, Thistles are all available. Trees in range are willow, birch, sycamore, conifers inevitably and some scrubby hawthorn. There is plenty of gorse around and also the hillside nearby is covered in ragwort, some bramble and a fair bit of low growing meadow flowers. I have only identified coltsfoot, gentians & campanulas – there is more. I have spread some borage and other useful seeds about and planted a couple of trees for early pollen and last year a nearby farm had planted a small quantity of sunflowers, the roadside verges are left long mostly too. So there is stuff to be had, but the weather needs to be kind, otherwise flows are very sporadic. The local association reported that a couple of years ago they were unable to take any honey off at all as the weather that summer had been so grim - but I'm still smiling.

It sounds like it's very similar to here , is there any gorse control burning etc... The sheep eat the new shots in the spring here but other than that it's out of control I'll put s picture up.

 

[Curly green fingers]

Picture 3 is our paddock and there's Hawthorne and willow, maple sycamore . Taken last weekend
Picture 2 is the common in front of the house acre's of thistle last summer.
Picture 4 this winter and the gorse.
Picture 1 clee summit in Feb which is 5 mins walk from the house .

Sent from my Nokia 1 using Tapatalk

 

[Murox]

It sounds like it's very similar to here , is there any gorse control burning etc... The sheep eat the new shots in the spring here but other than that it's out of control I'll put s picture up.

There is gorse burning of course but it is very limited. I shall have to go and take some snap shots of the immediate terrain and areas that are in flying distance.

 

[Beefriendly]

If flying temps are of interest there was an article in the Jan 2018 ABJ by Anne Chilcot and Tom Seeley on bees in Scotland. "Cold flying foragers: Honey bees in Scotland seek water in winter".
Anything above 4C and they where found foraging water from a dish. Apparently they constantly shiver to prevent their flight muscles dropping below 25C.

 

[Murox]

If flying temps are of interest there was an article in the Jan 2018 ABJ by Anne Chilcot and Tom Seeley on bees in Scotland. "Cold flying foragers: Honey bees in Scotland seek water in winter".
Anything above 4C and they where found foraging water from a dish. Apparently they constantly shiver to prevent their flight muscles dropping below 25C.

Yes always of interest, thanks for that. I shall look it up later today. They have to be tough here. I've only witnessed them flying at temps around 7C, and where mine are its usually with wind - westerly mostly.