Heather 2018

[Erichalfbee]

Lots of commercial operations hogging greats swathes of the moors, just as well there is plenty of room up there for us hobbyists as well.

You can hardly blame them....
I would love to have a go, maybe I might just have a look round for next year and chase up who owns the land.
Heather honey is my absolute favourite and the cut comb is to die for.....sigh

 

[Swarm]

Ivy?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ivy?

Yes, that was really weird.
I still have that half jar

 

[Beefriendly]

You can hardly blame them....

I don't blame them at all, there is plenty of heather up here.
You just need to be aware where they operate so you don't end up with your half dozen hives competing with their 50. I stopped near one place and the heather was literally crawling with bees everywhere.
I have lots and lots of heather cut comb...half a freezer's worth. I went a bit overboard last year.

 

[Beefriendly]

Yes, that was really weird.
I still have that half jar

Ivy honey that bad?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Somebody bought me a present of some limited edition Ivy from Quince. I said thank you and considering that the stuff stinks and has a reputation for being nearly as awful as Manuka,forgot about it for nine months. I thought I'd try it and lo and behold it actually tasted OK....I couldn't believe it so I took it to a honey swap some of us have at WBKA and nobody identified it. Somebody even asked whether it had some heather in it. It got forgotten and found when I was looking through my stash of honey people have given me.

 

[Beefriendly]

Not a crop we get around here as Ivy usually flowers Nov/Dec. Good for holly and ivy Xmas wreaths but not for honey flow.

 

[Stiffy]

Checked hives on heather at out Apiary and it’s not producing yet, hopefully it may come in soon.
S

 

[simonforeman]

This may be a stupid question but going to ask anyway.....

You guys who live near the moors where the Heather is, Do you just take your hives up there set them up without permission or do you need authorisation? Just curious as do not know how it works.

 

[Hivemaker.]

You guys who live near the moors where the Heather is, Do you just take your hives up there set them up without permission or do you need authorisation? Just curious as do not know how it works.

You need permission, Simon.

 

[Beefriendly]

This may be a stupid question but going to ask anyway.....

You guys who live near the moors where the Heather is, Do you just take your hives up there set them up without permission or do you need authorisation? Just curious as do not know how it works.

Yes, you need to ask permission. Estate owners factor or local farmers are good bets. Most are happy to have you. A lot of moorland never sees a honey bee.
One communal site in the military area near Fylingdales on North Yorks requires you to apply for a permit.

 

[masterBK]

I've given up taking a trailor load of hives to the heather (after 30+ years of the annual migration to the Yorkshire moors) so now need to find a home for my mountain grey heather press as it is taking up much needed space in the cupboard under the stairs.

 

[simonforeman]

Thanks for the info... Does not affect me unless I move.....but always nice knowing how things work.

 

[masterBK]

MG heather press

 

[Beefriendly]

A rare beast indeed.
I suspect it is better than those fruit presses that they sell for heather honey extraction. Do you get all the honey out on the first pressing? When I used a fruit press for heather honey you had to break up the compressed wax pellet and extract a further 2 times to get most of the honey out.

 

[Erichalfbee]

MG heather press

That’s a thing of beauty but is it galvanised?

 

[SDM]

I could tell from the bottom of the hill it wasn't going to be great news. There's just no colour in the Heather compared to previous years. 2 sites, 16 hives and nor a full frame between them. There's part filled( about a quarter)cells in 1 super per hive , so theyre not starving but it looks like a busr for me this year.
Hopefully they'll at least get most of their winter feed out of it.

 

[Beefriendly]

I could tell from the bottom of the hill it wasn't going to be great news. There's just no colour in the Heather compared to previous years. 2 sites, 16 hives and nor a full frame between them. There's part filled( about a quarter)cells in 1 super per hive , so theyre not starving but it looks like a busr for me this year.
Hopefully they'll at least get most of their winter feed out of it.

Real shame, sounds like boggy moors are doing okay, but mountainous heather and heath-land have suffered badly.

 

[mbc]

I'm not one for shadenfraud but I breathed a sigh of relief reading that as due to other family commitments I've not taken a trailer or two of bees to the heather for the first time in about twenty years. I usually go to the Brecon beacons, anybody else got reports from South Wales?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'm not one for shadenfraud but I breathed a sigh of relief reading that as due to other family commitments I've not taken a trailer or two of bees to the heather for the first time in about twenty years. I usually go to the Brecon beacons, anybody else got reports from South Wales?

The Drysgol on the black mountain and Pen Taircarn still looks very dull and gloomy I went up there last weekend and a lot of the ling was open , although - none of the apiaries with access to the heather seem to have foraged anything off the hillsides. It's still as dry as a nun's nasty up there.