Hawthorn

[sainfoin]

I looked very carefully last year at the hawthorn right beside the track we walk each day and I'm not convinced bees do go to the flowers. Interested in others' opinions on this topic.

 

[enrico]

I looked very carefully last year at the hawthorn right beside the track we walk each day and I'm not convinced bees do go to the flowers. Interested in others' opinions on this topic.

Mine do!, well not to that particular tree but local ones!

 

[Goran]

Here bees do go at hawthorn - nectar and pollen. Last year was catastrophic for acacia and bees added also much of nectar from hawthorn and others to acacia honey. So acacia honey lost his bright greenish look. And finished blur and faster becoming solid.. So the last year it helped the bees and us at the end.. I saw two days before it started flowering.. This year before acacia for a difference of last year.. So if the weather behave well, we will have here proper acacia honey ( greenish bright)..

 

[Swarm]

Bees do work Hawthorn but it is a strange one, it seems to give a good yield in the right conditions, beautiful honey but those conditions don't come around often enough. Sometimes years apart.

 

[Davelin]

Last year the only honey I got was from the hawthorn.

 

[Luminos]

Yes, seen mine on hawthorne last year

 

[DanBee]

Can get a flow from Hawthorn but it needs an almost unseasonally warm period whilst it is in flower. Otherwise, it's just a component of the spring forage.

 

[victor meldrew]

In twenty odd years, I've only seen bees working hawthorn a couple of times . Maybe this will be such a year given how late everything is !
Some say the ground is depleted in certain nutrients which take a few years to become re-established, some say conditions usually ensure more forage attractive to bees flowers at the same time?
VM


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[victor meldrew]

When hawthorn is secreting nectar each floret ooses the stuff!
VM


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[alanf]

My bees were on hawthorn last year and the flowering was as prolific as I recall. Howes list it as a "major" honey source but good hawthorn honey years can be several years apart. The nectar may be unreliable, described as "notoriously fickle" and even varying in yield within a few miles. Fewer reservations of hawthorn as a pollen source so potentially more use for that most years. If it hasn't been machine flailed to the point where it struggles to flower at all that is.

 

[Skyhook]

I believe it is one of those flowers which only has one shot of nectar, so if it rains on the open flowers and washes them out, that's it for the season.

 

[user 6228]

so rare to see it as mature trees
there was a few in Woodville nr Burton on trent.

 

[mbc]

Its said that a good hawthorn honey season often precedes a rubbish main flow.
I got some hawthorn honey last year.

 

[Bitbybit]

The man around here that drives the hedge cutting machines seem to really hate hawthorn, there's rarely enough tree left to flower

 

[theboynelson]

Its said that a good hawthorn honey season often precedes a rubbish main flow.
I got some hawthorn honey last year.

I'm not sure that plants have the ability to predict the future. I certainly hope not as my bees are loving the hawthorn at the moment.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Its said that a good hawthorn honey season often precedes a rubbish main flow.
I got some hawthorn honey last year.

Mmmmmmm
same here

 

[mbc]

I'm not sure that plants have the ability to predict the future. I certainly hope not as my bees are loving the hawthorn at the moment.

Hawthorn is a long way from flowering here so its either a lot earlier with you or you are mistaking it for blackthorn/damson.

Mmmmmmm
same here

See above.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Only Blackthorn here.
Hawthorn still in tight bud.
What I meant is that I too got some hawthorn honey last year and the rest of the season was C**P

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hawthorn is a long way from flowering here so its either a lot earlier with you or you are mistaking it for blackthorn/damson.

Plenty of blackthorn flowering to the East of the country (England as well as Wales!) But you can see the difference - Ipswich all in full bloom - masses and masses of it then you creep further West patchy in Monmouthshire, a sprinkling in Blaenau Gwent and Glamorganshire - next to bu**er all in my little corner of Carmarthenshire

 

[BeeJayBee]

my bees are loving the hawthorn at the moment.

Wow! Ours hasn't bothered showing any leaves yet, let alone flowers. It's still quite cold though, with overnight frosts.