Heather predictions this year

[biglongdarren]

I was up with my bees today in the high Mournes and they were flying very strong bringing in lots of heather pollen, frames were getting drawn and nectar showing. They have only been there 4 days, all on the bell though, very little ling open yet.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I was up with my bees today in the high Mournes and they were flying very strong bringing in lots of heather pollen, frames were getting drawn and nectar showing. They have only been there 4 days, all on the bell though, very little ling open yet.

Still all to play for ,do you have any photos ?where are the mournes?

 

[Aneebe]

Still all to play for ,do you have any photos ?where are the mournes?

Ooh shock horror! C S Lewis AND Percy French are spinning in their graves. I'm showing my age I realise.

 

[Erichalfbee]

C S Lewis AND Percy French are spinning in their graves

Then google was invented and all was well

 

[Ian123]

I’ve just got a few packed up and ready to go……..managed to set off a great robbing frenzy. I suspect a few nucs will get hammered!!!

 

[Curly green finger's]

I’ve just got a few packed up and ready to go……..managed to set off a great robbing frenzy. I suspect a few nucs will get hammered!!!

I was making nucs up yesterday plus removing supers much the same was happening here , I closed a few smaller nucs down to one bee space , I’ve also lost one mini nuc to wasps/hornets.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Heather was starting on Stedham and Iping commons in Sussex this weekend - unfortunately it’s about a mile from 15 of my clients hives so it they get some it will bugger up extraction

 

[ericbeaumont]

Heather was starting on Stedham and Iping commons in Sussex

Ling is about to open further North at Hankley Common in West Surrey. Though the bell flowered early and for most of July it didn't seem to produce a heavy flow and last week there was nothing on it, despite recent rain and bathwater temps.

Wildfires burned vast acres of Hankley last year and much of it still looks like a moonscape, though heather sprouts are in both photos.

will bugger up extraction

Yes, and it never amounts to more than a few patches in combs. I'm getting everything off this week and leaving a few hopeful empties on the strongest. Last year for me here, as Barbara, the lovely local, is moving and transferred her field to a grandson, who wants it as a base for firewood production. Been roaming google and the back roads looking for a field that isn't MOD, but no luck so far.

 

[Curly green finger's]

My predictions, we’ll I’m feeding colony’s on the moors most are ok for stores but this weather is really getting on my nerves.

We have fields of forage ( not heather) and the weather just isn’t letting the girls work it.
Some lovely strong colony’s though and my intros/unites are 100% what ever I’m doing .

 

[elainemary]

My predictions, we’ll I’m feeding colony’s on the moors most are ok for stores but this weather is really getting on my nerves.

We have fields of forage ( not heather) and the weather just isn’t letting the girls work it.
Some lovely strong colony’s though and my intros/unites are 100% what ever I’m doing .

Not sure if it’s worth taking colonies to the heather in the north …2 days out of the next fortnight are rain free. Mine at home which are only a field away from the heather, are scouring for nectar sources whenever there is a break in the rain.
Bees in the valley though are bringing fresh balsam in, every bee sporting the distinctive white stripe, after 4 weeks of eating back stores. If we had a week without rain there would be a huge flow of balsam & heather.
What do other heather go-ers in the north think?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Not sure if it’s worth taking colonies to the heather in the north …2 days out of the next fortnight are rain free. Mine at home which are only a field away from the heather, are scouring for nectar sources whenever there is a break in the rain.
Bees in the valley though are bringing fresh balsam in, every bee sporting the distinctive white stripe, after 4 weeks of eating back stores. If we had a week without rain there would be a huge flow of balsam & heather.
What do other heather go-ers in the north think?

I’m having my doubts about the heather flow here also , no hb here at work but loads of other forage .
Home there is hb and willow herb just starting to flower really well .
I’d be interested to know Murray’s thoughts I might give him a ring .

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’d be interested to know Murray’s thoughts I might give him a ring .

Tweet him. He has all his hives already in place

 

[Curly green finger's]

Tweet him. He has all his hives already in place

Yes I know I’ll call him

 

[Erichalfbee]

 

[Amari]

Just a repeat pic (taken 10 July, Suffolk Coast and Heaths ANOB) of what I've previously posted, very little bell heather bloom and the rest of the heather, which I presume to be ling, looked dead. Four days go I visited again hoping to see signs of life after recent rain but no, deader than before. I've had good crops intermittently over the last 20 years.

 

[pargyle]

This was the heather in Padley Gorge, Derbyshire last Sunday ... Looking very dry.

 

[Garry R]

Ooh shock horror! C S Lewis AND Percy French are spinning in their graves. I'm showing my age I realise.

Was brought up on the Percy French poetry thanks to my mother! Are you right there Michael are you right!! Do you think that you'll be home before the night. The mountains of Mourne roll down to the sea, home of the Silent Valley reservoir where the steel use in construction was supplied by a Glasgow foundry owned by a long ago distant relative of my family a few generations back.

 

[peterbees]

Heather on Conwy Mountain, north Wales looked promising on Wednesday. Warm days forecast for later next week.

 

[Amari]

Heather on Conwy Mountain, north Wales looked promising on Wednesday. Warm days forecast for later next week.

That's bell heather, Erica cinerea, presumably?

 

[Aneebe]

Was brought up on the Percy French poetry thanks to my mother! Are you right there Michael are you right!! Do you think that you'll be home before the night. The mountains of Mourne roll down to the sea, home of the Silent Valley reservoir where the steel use in construction was supplied by a Glasgow foundry owned by a long ago distant relative of my family a few generations back.

They are beautiful mountains, said to be the inspiration for Narnia (C.S. Lewis being a Belfast boy). I'd forgotten about "Are you right there Michael" being a Percy French song. You brought back a poignant memory of my dad (a beekeeper back in the day) singing it around the house. Nice.