London main flow

[margob99]

West of London, on the Berks/Bucks border, we have LOADS of buddleia (thousands of them along the railway lines) in flower, lavatera, clover still doing well, HB and rosebay willowherb, hypericum tailing off. In my garden, privet, salvia (VERY pungent in the heat), lavender, roses, laurel leaves and the brambles have only just in the last few days started flowering. Sedum will come soon. So in many respects we're doing well, and I'm wondering if the season is going to give us an Indian Summer late into autumn ....

 

[Tom Bick]

Buddleia if only margob99. The common white and purple buddleia a great bush for butterflies but not bees unfortunately, if only it was.

There is one or two of the buddleia family that is good for bees but may be more ornamental and perhaps not so rampant.

 

[MandF]

Tell that to the honey bees on the buddleia (purple one) in my garden

The bumbles and butterflies love it, but I see plenty of honeybees on it too. And mine is the rampant kind!

I noticed the himalayan balsam is out along the thames, but havent noticed any of the familiar ghost bees coming back into my hives. Dont know if thats because its not in full nectar flow yet, or the bees still have better/closer options...

 

[Tom Bick]

Tell that to the honey bees on the buddleia (purple one) in my garden

.

Interesting not generally known to be any good for honey bees, I will have to keep an eye on it from now on.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Tell that to the honey bees on the buddleia (purple one) in my garden

The bumbles and butterflies love it, but I see plenty of honeybees on it too. And mine is the rampant kind!

I noticed the himalayan balsam is out along the thames, but havent noticed any of the familiar ghost bees coming back into my hives. Dont know if thats because its not in full nectar flow yet, or the bees still have better/closer options...

x

the nectaries for AMM are to far down the buddlia flower tube for the bees short tongues at about 5.9mm to reach whereas some strains of Causacian are 7mm (para15 Wedmore 2nd edition/wiki)

so if you have carnolions or your mongrels are mainly eastern european origin bees then possiblely they are getting some nectar but i suspect that most AM Mongrels on buddlia are collecting pollen rather than nectar...

easy to spot ,lets have a report back on garden buddlia and bee activity and whether it is pollen collector or foragers on it... remember a honey bees does not do both

today all i saw on buddlie were pollen collectors

 

[MandF]

Yes, I have noticed that most are pollen collectors, I did notice a couple yesterday which had no pollen, but they could have just got there (and were a bit high for me to see how they were working it).

 

[psafloyd]

Just Inspected (most of) my bees at my main apiary and I have five very heavy supers ready to go, so have put clearer boards on three. The heaviest is my biggest to date. Very, very heavy indeed.

 

[MandF]

Yes, I have noticed that most are pollen collectors, I did notice a couple yesterday which had no pollen, but they could have just got there (and were a bit high for me to see how they were working it).

Just popped out to check this morning, and definitely honeybees collecting nectar. In fact I saw 2 collecting nectar and 1 pollen on the tree outside my conservatory. Plus about 5 bumbles.

 

[Sadders]

Just Inspected (most of) my bees at my main apiary and I have five very heavy supers ready to go, so have put clearer boards on three. The heaviest is my biggest to date. Very, very heavy indeed.

How long did they take to fill?

 

[psafloyd]

How long did they take to fill?

I was away two and a half weeks (got back a week ago) and two of the full ones on one hive were extracted before I went away and the third was fairly empty.

The others were part filled, but had been depleted during the poor weather.

 

[meidel]

main flow must continue through summer!

I saw quite a few second blooms of bramble and blackberry all over the woods here as well - in fact blossoms next to fruiting parts. We left a few artichokes to flower and I'm hoping that the bees will forage from these too. And they seem to like the flowers from potato plants and other lookalikes like nightshade and solanum.

This morning I noticed a few bees on the courgette flowers, whatever courgette plants managed to grow despite the onslaught of slugs and snails! On the nearby golf course there's also an abundance of rosebay willowherb on the edges. I think the bees are bringing back the creamy coloured pollen.

I wonder if bees like sweet williams - they're just starting to bud and a few blooms can be seen - I've scattered their seeds in a fair number of pots as I love their fragrance.

The other flower I've noticed bumbles going for are the snapdragons - I've yet to see honeybees on them though.