elderflower

[adrian wilford]

do honey bees work elderfower? looked at some yesterday and couldnt see any working it.

 

[Davelin]

No, it does not seem to be a good plant for bees.

Certainly I've got loads adjacent and never seen a bee on it.

 

[sahtlinurk]

i have seen a bee on it once. but just one bee. wondering what is it they don't like about it?

Lauri

 

[Finman]

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I looked red elderberry this spring and I noticed a new thing. A bee worked under flower. There we big extrafloral nectaries in sprout buds and under leaf root. Bees did not visit in flowers.

 

[Skyhook]

I suspect like so many other flowers, the weather has to be just right. A beek brought some honey in to the club last year, said it was elderflower. 'Hw can you be so sure' we all asked- until we tasted it, and it was like elderflower cordial. Bloomin' lovely!

 

[justme]

Thats interesting Skyhook, I thought bees didnt like it, then read somewhere that they do. Never having seen a bee on it myself I was slightly confused, but now you've confirmed it then it must be a hawthorn type tree:.) if you see what I mean.

 

[Easy Beesy]

It's my understanding that bees will work plants in preferential order. Ie if there is nothing better they will work elderflower, if they can find something more to their liking they will work that.
Eb

 

[Finman]

I suspect like so many other flowers, the weather has to be just right. A beek brought some honey in to the club last year, said it was elderflower. 'Hw can you be so sure' we all asked- until we tasted it, and it was like elderflower cordial. Bloomin' lovely!

I do not believe that. How you bees can pick just one flower nectar among other 100 species.

Furthermore, elder has so much nectar that you may get it so pure.
I have met often such guys who get unifloral honey from nothing.

.

 

[gingerbees]

Hundreds of bees working on elderflower the other day, in the field next to our allotment. Also tons all over the phacelia, it was warm and humid, the scent was amazing. Hampered our elderflower collection for champagne!

 

[susbees]

Bees working elderflower here today..warmish, humid, sun on the flowers. Distinct pattern...mid-cream waxy looking pollen, pollen mark on "face", dusting of pollen on underside of abdomen. Had noticed this pattern earlier in the day entering several hives.

 

[hiveabee]

Bees working elderflower here today..warmish, humid, sun on the flowers. Distinct pattern...mid-cream waxy looking pollen, pollen mark on "face", dusting of pollen on underside of abdomen. Had noticed this pattern earlier in the day entering several hives.

Been on this forum a while now. And if I listened to what was being advised on this forum; My bees would have been done for by ; now.according to 2 of my books ; elder is good for bees

 

[Finman]

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How many times your elder busches blooms? Here they bloomed with dandelion and now they are making berries.

 

[Frisbee]

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How many times your elder busches blooms? Here they bloomed with dandelion and now they are making berries.

They are just in flower now Finman, they always follow the Hawthorne. Bit late this year as it has been so cool.

Frisbee

 

[REDWOOD]

My bees completely ignored the elder flower today and went straight for the clover but they could not get the fridge door open lol, no seriously they did go for the clover in the fields

 

[REDWOOD]

I just remembered something about elder flower, My grandad was a well educated man who studied in Oxford and loved veg gardening which started during WWII and later in life started making wine, one summers day we went collecting elder flower and he told me that you must talk to the tree and tell her you are taking a few flowers to make some lovely wine, I looked astonished and thought he was winding me up so I replied why is that gramps and he said that the elder tree was tree of mother nature and before we take from nature we must ask first and tell nature what we are going to do with the pickings, so being a cheeky little lad i said what if we don't and he replied the wine will taste bloody terrible, I could not argue with this as I had never tasted wine then. I often wonder if there is any truth in this but would be dammed if I was going to talk to the trees

 

[susbees]

My bees completely ignored the elder flower today and went straight for the clover but they could not get the fridge door open lol, no seriously they did go for the clover in the fields

What's your soil alkalinity. Convinced we're too acid for the clover to work...and not got around to having the fields limed for a while with one thing and another...

 

[mbc]

What's your soil alkalinity. Convinced we're too acid for the clover to work...and not got around to having the fields limed for a while with one thing and another...

Wild white clover will yield even on hard, acidic, stoney ground if the conditions are right. We need moist soil and a sustained period of high pressure and temperature and it will yield freely in most places it grows.