Finman

[For want of a better word]

Firefeed is easy to tank for bees and flowers are plenty. Nectar droplets are in one basement and a bee loads itsef quickly compared to rape flower.

Fireweed does not give yield on dry soil, even if it blooms there like mad.

IS Finnies Firreweed Rose Bay Willow Herb... as spread by the tracks of Canadian Tanks across southern UK during WW11 ?
Loads of it this year in Cornish south coastal areas and around Kelliwick where the Canadians practised and massed before floating across the channel to kick 7 bells out of the .....................

 

[BeeJayBee]

IS Finnies Firreweed Rose Bay Willow Herb...?

Yes.

 

[alanf]

IS Finnies Firreweed Rose Bay Willow Herb... as spread by the tracks of Canadian Tanks across southern UK during WW11 ?
Loads of it this year in Cornish south coastal areas and around Kelliwick where the Canadians practised and massed before floating across the channel to kick 7 bells out of the .....................

Fireweed is the N American term for Chamerion angustifolium, Rosebay Willowherb in most UK references. Not so sure it was on Canadian tank tracks, it's a UK native and common on disturbed ground. If it spread into new areas by any human means, it was more likely the railways. It grows well in the clinker along tracks and the airbourne seeds would ttravel well in slipstreams.

 

[Finman]

.
If you look google maps, it is everywhere in northern parts of globe.

Range - Fireweed occurs throughout the US except in the southeastern states and Texas. It is found in all of the Canadian provinces. It also occurs throughout Eurasia (and is the national flower of Russia).

 

[Chris Luck]

It's conspicuous by its absence in my part of the world although there are plenty of the smaller willow herbs, this is from my "garden".



Chris

 

[Suzi Q]

Elephant hawk moth catapillar?

 

[Finman]

.
Here its name is fireweed hawk moth. It is very common at night in lilac flowers in June. I have seen couple of those larvae feeding on himalayan balsam.

.

 

[Finman]

иван-чай in Russia

Couple years ago Russia had large forest fires and the one year the areas which burned, were size half of Finland. Propably they have now good honey pastures, ...but they have no road net on those areas, I suppose.

 

[Dishmop]

Elephant hawk moth catapillar?

Sock puppet.

 

[Chris Luck]

Elephant hawk moth catapillar?

Willow herb hawk moth caterpillar and here's the moth also in "my garden".



Chris

 

[Finman]

.
I have butter fly collection

With Martagon lily you may get swarms of moth to you garden.
Many of moths do not lick nectar, and they are not in flowers.
Those you get with moth quick silver light.

I have found that smell of honey from hives invite many day butterflyes to garden.

Martagon

 

[For want of a better word]

иван-чай in Russia

Couple years ago Russia had large forest fires and the one year the areas which burned, were size half of Finland. Propably they have now good honey pastures, ...but they have no road net on those areas, I suppose.

SO SO much more pretty than the OSR we get lumbered with !
Thanks Sauna Man for posting that... you have a soul after all !​

​

 

[Finman]

Yeah, that famous British soul test!
.

 

[blackcavebees]

Yeah, that famous British soul test!
.

Any reason why fireweed didn't yield much here this year (according to local beekeepers) does it need wet at certain type of year or does it become less of a yield as years go on at a particular site?

 

[Scutellator]

- Selecting what ---> good layers and good pastures.

I see where you are going. So they gave varied amount of crop because they were on a different location.

I am used to think the opposite way - i search the poorest environment and then i keep my eye for the best hives. The selection is pretty useless in a areas with good honey flows , and sometimes impossible.
It is not always about the size of the colony, busy or not, it's about working smart. The bees use different tactics for foraging, and most often that makes a BIG difference.

 

[REDWOOD]

It's conspicuous by its absence in my part of the world although there are plenty of the smaller willow herbs, this is from my "garden".



Chris

Found one a few weeks ago in my garden, my wife thought it was a baby snake

 

[sunhivebee]

He tends not to use them and at one point had us "throw them in the willow bushes". http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=346379&postcount=16

Oh, but that was excellent advice.From Finland.
Queen excluders are also good for cutting up into pieces to fit over hive entrances when you've just hived a swarm that took ten hours to get.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Queen excluders are also good for cutting up into pieces to fit over hive entrances when you've just hived a swarm that took ten hours to get.

Why would you want to do that - aren't you inhibiting their natural instinct to select a new home of their choosing?

 

[Finman]

Oh, but that was excellent advice.From Finland.
Queen excluders are also good for cutting up into pieces to fit over hive entrances when you've just hived a swarm that took ten hours to get.

That excluder .... a beginner never learn "bee biology" if he uses excluder. And he will never know what is a good queen.
And eternal stories about "douple brood!". 200 kg honey yield per hive needs 3 brood boxes.

use mostly excluder when I clean wild blueberries and lingon berries after machine pickling. I have 1,5 m long excluder gutter. Berries drill downwards and rubbish drop through the gutter.

I pick berries normally 1-2 buckets/hour. It is hard job to clean berries without gutter.

I made that gutter to the Thailand professional berry pickers too. Metal is better than plastic as cleaner excluder.

Berry picking machines, called sometimes " a hoarder". The biggest red is absolutely best.

 

[Dishmop]

Oh, but that was excellent advice.From Finland.
Queen excluders are also good for cutting up into pieces to fit over hive entrances when you've just hived a swarm that took ten hours to get.

Hardly natural beekeeping forcing a queen to stay where she may not want to stay..