How far would you travel for OSR

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Chris Tel

New Bee
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Jul 26, 2011
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Location
Birmingham
Hive Type
National
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18
Just out of curiosity how far would beekeepers be prepared to travel to put some colonies near to OSR? I'm assuming that under the current weather conditions not at all...or is that not the case...? Conversely if the weather was fine would a half hour drive be worthwhile...?
 
If you have say ten hives on a trailer you can move them to any crop. In the old days we used to get paid well by the farmers for taking our bees to their crops.
One hive for a half hour journey..... No thanks
E
 
I was offered control over a 5 hive site close to 300HA and and a three acre apple orchard which is 12 miles from home . it then became...almost half of what was originally offered and can just accommodate 3 hives

ok This year give it a try as no OSR near my main hives and the prospect of large quantities of honey from 300Ha of OSR looked promising....but the 20 mile round trip is too expensive in the car even at 50mpg and prohibitive in a Landrover at 17mpg...i expected to visit twice weekly in OSR time, but so far, All yellow and there in nowt for the bees to collect....too cold
 
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Perhaps the question should be How Far Would You Travel To Get Away From OSR.

I am a bit biased as I am a good few miles from it but the more I hear about it I am very happy to stay that way from it.

I fear one day our paths will cross.
 
If you can't beat it (its within a couple of miles of my apieries), may as well enjoy it!

Jc
 
Just out of curiosity how far would beekeepers be prepared to travel to put some colonies near to OSR? I'm assuming that under the current weather conditions not at all...or is that not the case...? Conversely if the weather was fine would

that is quite a dictance. 20 miles. One hour driving and 4 litre gasoline each trip.
 
Perhaps the question should be How Far Would You Travel To Get Away From OSR.

I am a bit biased as I am a good few miles from it but the more I hear about it I am very happy to stay that way from it.

I fear one day our paths will cross.

:iagree:

I am not far away, but while I have to work, I wouldn't want the extra hassle.
 
I was offered control over a 5 hive site close to 300HA and and a three acre apple orchard which is 12 miles from home . it then became...almost half of what was originally offered and can just accommodate 3 hives

MM, don't suppose that orchard is still available is it? If it was 12 miles in my direction, I would be interested...
 
Perhaps the question should be How Far Would You Travel To Get Away From OSR.

I am a bit biased as I am a good few miles from it but the more I hear about it I am very happy to stay that way from it.

I fear one day our paths will cross.

agree, The hives on my Mill Hill site in open pasture at least 5 miles from OSR won the "best in Show" at our 2012 Honey Show. i doubt if OSR what palnted nearbye, they would win that

I just wanted to try a few hives on OSR for the experience with talk of 100lb to 300lb per hive
 
'I just wanted to try a few hives on OSR for the experience with talk of 100lb to 300lb per hive'

Whilst I know that it might be a trek to my local OSR I also just wanted to see what it was like to have supers full of honey! That said with the current price of petrol I'm beginning to wonder if it's going to be worth it, especially if the bees are staying indoors and not actually foraging.
 
Tom, MM - you are lucky you have a good variety of forage in the Big Smoke. Out here in hicksville the OSR counts for over 50% of my crop, and while I much prefer the hedgerow/lime honey I get at the end of the summer, the OSR should really help with the annual volume. Not this year I fear.
 
In the old days when it flowered for 6 weeks I expected some 40-60lbs per colony and a good un might take 80.

300lbs? Good beer that.

PH
 
OSR seems to be unfairly made a bogey in my view. If you are close then it is exciting trying to keep ahead of the bees. If you extract early then there really is no problem and it is the only honey I personally like to eat. I am very sad that although this year my bees will have to travel a mile, it may all be over due to continuing poor weather.
 
well lets break it all down shall we.

round trip of 40 miles + petrol cost +vehical costs= 40p per mile i belive i get that from Mr Taxman so £16 per visit is the true costs not £6 for a gallon

the farm is actually an eastate and we are looking at well over 300H of OSR, plus after that field bean and after that flax so we are looking at BIG crops and BIG supers, but of low quality honey, there is no reason if a february build up was started and we properly sited half a dozen hives there we could not a very big return, i would even say half a super a week each easy if not a full super, we are looking at croping for two months so thats eight supers each at 25kg apiece times six so say ONE POINT TWO TONS OF HONEY!!!!

OK SO IT NEVER QUITE WORKS LIKE THAT BUT SOME TIMES WE DO GET CLOSE

the set up is the problem though, what we need to do is to reduce travel costs and beeks time

the stand for a start would want to knocked into the ground so it cant be blown or knocked over, all the hives should then be strapped or screwd down so they dont go over, we have alll found our best hive upside down when we have gone to inspect them so fix the lot down.

start the spring feed in february, big feed

this is the trick every one forgets at the start, what we do today has produced effects five weeks later

this kicks the queen into lay, let the hive stock up on brood

move the hives to the osr before flowering to make sure there ready for the whole crop and not just bits or the tail end
just as the hive explodes with new bees and new hatchings the flow starts perfect the hive then rapidly expands as the crop flow kicks in,

four supers on top of a hive is perfectly ok,

to save time with extracting a ton of honey i would extract supers as we go along, to keep on top of the honey flow

the next couple of problems is looking after distence hives, i found IP cameras worked well with a small car battery and gave me piece of mind great little things and now not too expencive.

sit around the rape a few bait hives just in case as osr and bees will always catch me out with a swarm, young queens help to prevent that

20 mile radius is to me perfect to do distance bee keeping if as like here you have a massive area to harvest,
 
Pete,

ONE POINT TWO TONS OF HONEY!!!!

Your biggest flaw is 25kg per super ... pretty big supers methinks!
 
well lets break it all down shall we.

20 mile radius is to me perfect to do distance bee keeping if as like here you have a massive area to harvest,

perfect ....it allways wins home works...

said 2-hive owner!

Sounds bad if your pastures are that far...
 

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