Foraging in sunny intervals

[MattC]

Idle (perhaps stupid) question from a new beekeeper:

Does anyone know how this unsettled rain and sunny interval-type weather affects bees foraging for nectar?

Presumably will have something to do with length of the sunny intervals and how long it takes a colonies' foragers to mobilise when the rain stops.

Just curious.

 

[oliver90owner]

Does anyone know how this unsettled rain and sunny interval-type weather affects bees foraging for nectar?

Lucky you. Sunny intervals? Not enough foraging time to even maintain store levels at the moment,

Bees will be far more 'in tune' with the weather than us humans (who look and say 'it is still raining' or 'it has stopped raining'. Their survival depends on them foraging.

 

[madasafish]

At present, sunshine brings the scouts out within 2-3 mins.. After that? (Rain interrupted my watching:-(

 

[aberreef]

My lot seem to be doing OK, if a little slow. It's funny to watch the mad dash for the hive a few minutes before the rain starts, always lets me know it's time to run for the car lol.

 

[mbc]

Foraging on what ? Ok pollen is still available but the biggest effect the weather has is on the plants rather than the bees. Plants generally need sunlight and warmth to produce nectar.

 

[user 6228]

At present, sunshine brings the scouts out within 2-3 mins.. After that? (Rain interrupted my watching:-(

suggests a nice experiment to measure and correllate changes in light intensity and hive entrance traffic.

 

[aberreef]

Foraging on what ? Ok pollen is still available but the biggest effect the weather has is on the plants rather than the bees. Plants generally need sunlight and warmth to produce nectar.

No idea but they've filled most free space with the stuff Atm there's dandelion and blackthorn open locally, plus some flowering trees/shrubs close by

 

[Erichalfbee]

The Dandelions here remain half closed from the rain. Open flowers like Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Cherry get the nectar bashed out of them by the rain.
Sycamore is nearly here though and that should fare better.

 

[victor meldrew]

Question is . Will the hawthorn produce enough to interest the bees ?
VM

 

[johnmcc]

Plenty of activity from my bees once the temperature hits 9° or 10°, but because of the rain "hosepiping down" since the ban, and generally low temperatures for the time of year, I gave my hive 4kgs of 1:1 syrup yesterday . . . . and 24 hours later it's all gone! So round here (Norfolkshire) at least I'd guess there ain't enough nectar.

 

[Finman]

.
Rainshowers wash nectar away. Pollen is too wet to forage.
Showers hit much bees down and they do not recover anymore.

Those are dangerous weathers to colonies especially when bees drop into shadow.

 

[MattC]

Thanks all. So the consensus is that a sustained period of showery weather is a bad thing for nectar flow- less forage available even if the bees get out during the sunny spells. Makes sense.

Will be checking mine in the next day or two, with syrup or fondant handy just in case.

 

["The Beehive"]

i do like your avatar
Victor Meldrew

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

i do like your avatar
Victor Meldrew

Welcome to the Forum, Beehive!

I agree about VM's avatar; certainly drummed the sequence into my tiny mind.

Yours is pretty..... Well, just that, really.

Think we're not a million miles apart. Maybe well meet up sometime.

Best wishes,

Dusty.

 

[FreeFall]

Lots of orientation and foraging going on when I took my morning coffee down to sit in a brief period sun by the hive today.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5AkdHmaU4E[/ame]

Then it all went very quiet - looked behind me to see this coming in!

 

[Tom Bick]

Providing the sun does finally shine we will reap the rewards of this rain in time.

 

[Erichalfbee]

April showers bring May flowers.
EVER the optimist.

 

[stephenpug]

I am new to this only got my first hive on Sunday but there wasn't a lot of activity with the bees today so I put 1kg of sugar with 1pint of water in a feeder on top of the crown board please tell me is that correct

 

[itma]

I am new to this only got my first hive on Sunday but there wasn't a lot of activity with the bees today so I put 1kg of sugar with 1pint of water in a feeder on top of the crown board please tell me is that correct

I've no idea what your hive might need, but a kilo of sugar shouldn't upset things too much.

Strong syrup would be a kilo of sugar to half a litre of water, or 2lb to a pint. Its best not to mix Imperial and metric units ... !

Welcome to the madhouse!

 

[Shabro]

one of my hives is under four large cherry trees, it certainly sounded like the whole hive was out on the trees this afternoon, I've never heard such a racket, dont know if they will have got anything from it though....