Hello from new member

[buzz lightyear]

make that 30% now! He supplies Tesco, for his sins.

 

[Haughton Honey]

I have read that 10% of uk strawberries are pollinated by bees.

I was speaking to v.v.v.v.v big fruit farming friend of my fathers (supplies Waitrose and M&S) based in Herefordshire and he said that most of the pollination of soft fruit in tunnels in this country is done by bumble bee packages from suppliers....simply because they will fly in cooler weather than your average honey bee.

 

[buzz lightyear]

re temp in poly tunnels. dropping off the nuc this morning at 9am had to take my jumper off. Thats to say tee shirt weather. Wish it was like that outside at 9am. So not sure that temp is the issue. Might be plenty of others though. Buzz

 

[BKF Admin]

Used to be the Strawberry capital of the world were one of my out apiaries is.

The farmers made their money years ago supplying Wimbledon and the London stores and have now all packed up.

The fields now are either housing estates or just left for hay.

Forage is the worst area I know of now in Hampshire!!

Are the Bumbles still imported from Holland for the glasshouses?

Supplying Tesco Buzz? that will end in tears!!
Have a lot of friends who have ben shafted by them and gone bankrupt.

 

[buzz lightyear]

Yeh, thats quite funny, as the village I live in has the reputation of being the Strawberry capital. Maybe a rumour spread about by farmers wanting to sell there Straws. Apparantly the farmer next door sends his to wimbledon. But then my mate in Liverpool went to school with the Beatles!
Re. Bumbles, I know they use them alot, I'll check out where they get them from. Buzz

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi KM,
A word of advice, re poly tunnels. I took ten colonies to a flower grower who had huge Polly tunnels for his plants, I really thought this is great to get an offer like this, and to boot it was next to an orchard.I took my bees down to him and some had stores in the supers. Cut a long story short the bees eat the stores and totally ignored the Polly tunnels with all that lovely flowering plans for nectar and pollen. I stayed all day to count how many bees used the tunnel (I know I'm ex service so I can count see!) there were two that used it but only popped into see what was there and turned round and out they went. To me the exercise was a complete and utter waste of time when my bees could have been utilised elsewhere. Beekeeping is always a learning curve which never straightens out.
Best of luck with your tunnels.

and welcome to the group.

Regards;

 

[andypigeon]

i use to work in poly tunnels on a hot day it got up to 52 oc not my cup of tea, i could not see bees lasting long in that heat so you would have to keep a eye on the weather just in case it worms up again

 

[beekeeping4you]

Hi,
I'm another newcomer to the forum, just finished editing my profile and tried to upload video on 'Irish' beekeeping.
Happy Easter
Reiner

 

[Hivemaker.]

BK4U......Welcome to the forum.

 

[BKF Admin]

Hi welcome to the forum.
I can see the video so the upload worked ok.

If anyone has not seen the Irish video yet then go see it here: http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/video.php?do=viewdetails&videoid=63

 

[Bcrazy]

there must bee a caption for that vid. but I wont so welcome to the forum.