Honeybee density

[hedgerow pete]

ics26. it would of helped us earlier if yoy had updated your location so we knew where you were. i would say that as a standard for me in birmingham we could easily do 20 hives per acre due manly to the gardens and over grown areas all producing some form of flower the bees can harvest. try increasing in hives of two untill the crop starts to lower from the gross over all limit and thats your point to stop. as for lond dont forget that massive and i do mean massive areas are next to worthless for forage, Hyde park for instance apart from the flowers that are planted and the few trees when in flower most of it is grass with next to no clover the same can be said for many other parks or commons

the best forage i get is from the canal systems as its miles of open forage with next to no cutting as for whats local to me i know of 25 hives in a 1.5 mile radius of the allotment bee shed and none near the out aprairy that i use.

i have known several commercial bee farmers set up in a fantastic area a big load of gear to find the collection is rubbish but try some where else and make a ton

 

[Somerford]

Perhaps you'd better ask the Co-Op in a years time when they study the crop from 300 hives in one location in Cirencester ? That would be a good measure.

LMAO

S

 

[Poly Hive]

Axe grinding?

No one has ever said the 600 are going to be static.

The organisation running them is a Bee Farmer. They tend to be migratory.

I was. He is. They mainly are.

PH

 

[Somerford]

I was being facitious

S

 

[richardbees]

There was a lot of talk about "growing fowers for bees" at a recent London conference on Beekeeping.

It's an excellent ploy to encourage people to be bee friendly but utterly irrelevant as there are pollen/nectar sources galore from the thousands of ornamental street trees, willows, brambles and wildflowers on railway embankments - not to mention the famous London Limes.

To prove the point, just look out of the window on any train approaching any UK urban area.....what amazes me is how beekeepers manage in the countryside!

richard

 

[Chris Luck]

what amazes me is how beekeepers manage in the countryside!

All the usual stuff, hazel, willows, apricots, box, almonds, peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, apples, pears, rape, brambles, wild roses, lime trees, sweet chestnut, creeping thistle, sunflower, ivy to name but a few that provide good continuity.

Chris

 

[richardbees]

Chris, I forgot the geographical reach of this bb as I haven't seen too many Sunflower fields here lately!

...I was thinking more of the UK agricultural scene which (as seen through the window of my hypothetical train) tends to be miles and miles of green or brown with the obvious exception of the relatively small Rape or Linseed crops

Richard

 

[Hivemaker.]

Richard,your countryside sounds terrible...Around here, hazel,willow,dandelion,brambles,rosebay,clover,gorse,chestnut,lime,sycamore,bell heath,ling,sunflowers,field beans,rape,apple,pear,plum,cherry,ivy,thistles,hawthorn,balsam...ect ect.

 

[richardbees]

Hivemaker

You missed out Borage, Jacobs ladder, Vipers bugloss, Phacelia and a myriad of other flowers!

......but I'm talking about bee forage plants per acre, I fancy there's not too many 10 acre fields of sunflowers down your way!

 

[Hivemaker.]

Hi Richard, yes there are quite a lot of sunflowers grown down this way,many of the shoots plant it as a pheasant/partridge cover crop..and there are a lot of shoots. And the others come under the ect ect.

 

[Poly Hive]

the problem is of course that you cannot generalise on this one.

I had a week on the Isle of Sheppy last autumn and whilst there were some cover crops for game, in that instance maize, I was taken aback at the sheer scale of the farming. Massive fields, the biggest I have seen in the UK with of course machinery to match, and apart from hedge row plants which were rather wide apart for reasons above, there was not a great deal.

PH

 

[richardbees]

OK Hivemaker....

I speak as someone brought up in the Midlands and my idea of 'The countryside' is as seen from a train between London and Leicester which was truly mile after mile of green fields with hedges and the occasional tree.
Or the sixties when I was on airfields in East Anglia - and that was even greener with no trees at all!

But as PH says, one shouldn't generalise. I think it would be rather marvellous to keep bees somewhere surrounded by wild Thyme etc.....

rich

 

[Hivemaker.]

I agree,cannot generalise about locations,and the various forage to be found.......bee heaven or bee hell spring to mind.