Fellow Londoners

[JonnyPicklechin]

Anyone else notice ongoing flow? Seems much better than previous years. I probably had a short drop off but been excellent in the South West.

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[StephenT]

I’m just down the road from you in Ealing (near the Common) and there’s a great flow here at present. One of my hives has drawn a super of foundation and over half filled it in one week. Just stuck another one on. The limes on the Common have been in flower for a while but plenty of fresh looking flowers still. Quite a lot of privet around but most people trim so a lack of flowers. This is only my second year beekeeping so don’t have much to compare it with.

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

Hey Stephen...good to meet you. Ok same experience. I have an apiary in Syon Park and then another at my home a mile away from there. Have you ever done the pollen test? Sending away to check forage content?

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[StephenT]

Syon Park must be a great place for an apiary. I’ve got 3 hives in my back garden which is definitely the limit. I plan to do a pollen test this year as it will be interesting to see what’s in the honey and whether the lime features heavily. Lots of lavender and hebe's in our street which are currently busy with bees. There’s just a couple of sweet chestnuts on the Common which will hopefully provide forage in due course. I checked out the limes earlier and a lot of the flowers seem to be past it although there was one tree completely unopened. The tube tracks aren’t too far away but I think they keep those a lot tidier than railway tracks so not sure if there’s much in the way of brambles there. Will keep an eye out although I don’t plan to go on the tube for some time.

 

[citrus]

I'm down in Sutton with access to Banstead Common and the lavender fields near Carshalton Beeches ... ended up with 37 different types of pollen in the analysis from last year.

Had a bit of a gap after the dry but lucky with the mix of forage here