it's all gone yellow

[MuswellMetro]

Driving down the M1 tonight, once you are near London the Oil Seed Rape is now in flower on the majority of OSR fields

all it needs is a quick burst of sun and it will be mayhem for a while, so are you all ready?, frames made, supers stacked, extractor clean, honey buckets clean, jars ordered, ....or like me are you panicking and wondering if the noise of you making frames at 10:00pm , that you should have made over winter ,will disturb the neighbours ( luckily mine is away for Easter)

i make it 14days earlier than last year

There is still a few OSR field late sown that aren't showing but all those field that i saw in December showing a small number of yellow spikes are now in full flower, most others are 50% yellow

 

[enrico]

I wish!

 

[Ely]

Me too. No Osr in my 3mile radius I'm afraid

 

[YorkshireBees]

The fields of OSR near me are coming into bloom in various stages depending on if the receive full sun and are more sheltered (almost full bloom) to some that are still very green and not yet showing any sign of bloomage! We are getting some light rain that will help (compared to last years drought during OSR blooming period) but we need some warmer sunny periods during the day to enable the bees to forage.
I can see that the OSR flowering period may be extended this year with some fields flowering earlier and others later, I just hope we have some warmth with it!

I personally am ready with my 1st supers on and 2nd set stacked and ready, my only question is are my colonies ready aswell?

Only time will tell!

 

[gavin]

Up here in sunny eastern Perthshire the rape is also out. Not all fields but some. The later ones have a few flowers here and there and buds beginning to turn yellow. Are the bees ready? Some colonies are. Me? Of course not! I spend far too much time pissing about on the internet. Piles of frames sitting here yet to make up. However as far as I can make out there aren't any fields that close to the apiary this year - maybe a couple of km away - so maybe my rape harvest will not be that great.

G.

 

[alanf]

I was in North Norfolk last week. Some OSR was nearly in full flower, neighbouring field barely had any yellow showing. Locals said they were all drilled at much the same time and they were about the same height, density and size of plants. The variety appears to be the only difference, some flower earlier than others. What is planted locally is going to vary for all sorts of commercial reasons and it makes a difference to the timing. I guess if you're lucky you can find a site between varieties that extends the season.

 

[TOBY-3652]

we just need the good weather. bees not been out for 3 days and its raining here [againe]

 

[MuswellMetro]

I was in North Norfolk last week. Some OSR was nearly in full flower, neighbouring field barely had any yellow showing. Locals said they were all drilled at much the same time and they were about the same height, density and size of plants. The variety appears to be the only difference, some flower earlier than others. What is planted locally is going to vary for all sorts of commercial reasons and it makes a difference to the timing. I guess if you're lucky you can find a site between varieties that extends the season.

just wonder if the early flowering strain of OSR is a type that does in the OSR, though it is quite cold

 

[Poly Hive]

A few parks around me thinking about it but the majority are green still.

The bees are far from ready sadly, not been a great winter for the new site but it's all I have at the moment so will have to do until we move north.

PH

 

[Ziggymole]

Isn't oil seed rape one of the crops liable to have been sprayed with insectisides?
I've been reading about the neonicotinoids, thanking my lucky stars NOT to live anywhere near large of small scale agriculture and hoping that my closest neighbours don't use them either.
Surely we'd all do better to find "clean" sources of food for bees?

Ziggy

 

[MuswellMetro]

Isn't oil seed rape one of the crops liable to have been sprayed with insectisides?
I've been reading about the neonicotinoids, thanking my lucky stars NOT to live anywhere near large of small scale agriculture and hoping that my closest neighbours don't use them either.
Surely we'd all do better to find "clean" sources of food for bees?

Ziggy

yep it is quite lely sprayed with thiacloprid for pollen beetle

but then so are most gardens and allotments as it is in most bug guns

http://www.soilassociation.org/wildlife/bees/householdpesticides

 

[Ziggymole]

so are most gardens and allotments as it is in most bug guns

http://www.soilassociation.org/wildlife/bees/householdpesticides[/QUOTE]

I despair, really. It's bad enough that it's used by farmers. (I won't comment on my neighbours)

 

[Chris58]

Here in France the nearest OSR is La Vilotte, hoping they can't fly that far! Knowing my luck they can!!!

 

[AMAE]

OSR out in Berkshire, 2 fields away. Amazingly bees were ignoring it today with many of them choosing to make my large Weeping Willow literally buzz instead!

Is there nectar in Salix too, or just pollen?

 

[beebreeder]

The bees are far from ready sadly, not been a great winter for the new site but it's all I have at the moment so will have to do until we move north.

PH

Poly
With all your experience, what do you think is wrong with them? is it the race of bee or their type of home! or have they got nosema?

 

[YorkshireBees]

Pretty cool and threatening with rain all afternoon but the bees that were flying seemed to be making for the OSR about 30m away!
Some half decent weather is all that is needed now.
I had been assuming that it was the same strain of OSR planted in neighbouring fields and it was just the local conditions (ie shelter + amount of sunshine) that was the reason some fields are in full bloom whilst others were still green but of course they could just be different strains!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

we just need the good weather. bees not been out for 3 days and its raining here [againe]

Frustrating that the weather is a) stopping the bees from visiting all the fields of OSR we have around here and b) stopping me from diving in and acting on the queen cells I'm guessing they are busy building

 

[Cazza]

Frustrating that the weather is a) stopping the bees from visiting all the fields of OSR we have around here and b) stopping me from diving in and acting on the queen cells I'm guessing they are busy building

Ditto. very frustrating but that's beekeeping.
However, I have managed to finish a backlog of tedious DIY jobs which would have been ignored if the weather was better and been to a local beer festival.
Cazza

 

[Beeline]

Not fortunate enough to be with the bees during the weekdays to see how active they are during this period of cool weather.

Are they likely to be working the OSR 300m away in 10 degrees and cloudy or sitting at home and watching the weather from their landing board? Any of you fortunate to see them daily, near OSR, wish to comment?

My concern is that this weather looks set to continue for the next 10 days +. Not sure when I open up this weekend whether I'll find a super partially filled with OSR or a colony that is in need of feeding to bridge this lousy weather.

 

[CB008]

Mine are in Surrey and my wife says that they are not flying currently even with OSR a mile away. It looks too cold to open up thsi weekend which is a worry as I have deliberately encouraged them to build QC's in one hive in order to split.