National Honey Monitoring Scheme

[Margaret Anne Adams]

With regard to a pollen/nectar ratio.
I thought that the pollen coefficient was because some flowers will produce lots of pollen and some will produce only little. Hence, those that produce lots of pollen will appear to be over represented in a sample of pollen, and the coefficient is to adjust for this. This is what I thought I picked up from my microscopy course..
Just because bees bring in pollen from a certain plant does not necessarily mean that they bring in nectar from that plant, although they often do. Correct me if I am wrong

You are right; meadowsweet should be missed out of calculations as it yields little or no nectar, but lots of its pollen is often found in honey.

 

[Amari]

I believe at least one of the Brassica rapa subspecies may be grown for oil and not all of them are turnips either (I discovered this by accident a while back when looking for information about rapini, which is a leaf vegetable form of Brassica rapa). Perhaps it's therefore possible that what's labelled as turnip is actually some of your local OSR?

James

 

[nantmoel]

My sample was taken on 12/092021, the moister contents was 15%

 

[Jonnyl]

Mine arrived too and not what i expected either. Nearly 50% for the first two; Rubus bramble, Indian Balsam, Ribwort Plantain, Garden Privet, Heather, Garden Radish, Atlantic Ivy, Dicotyledons, Western Gorse, Cabbage, White Clover, Marsh Thistle.

 

[Margaret Anne Adams]

Isn’t it just an analysis of pollen content not the honey.

The small print. in the documents with your results. mentions that there is a problem with distinguishing between the members of the Brassicaceae family.

 

[Amari]

Mine arrived too and not what i expected either. Nearly 50% for the first two; Rubus bramble, Indian Balsam, Ribwort Plantain, Garden Privet, Heather, Garden Radish, Atlantic Ivy, Dicotyledons, Western Gorse, Cabbage, White Clover, Marsh Thistle.

My results reported dicotyledons too. From vague and distant memories of A level Biology (1959), dicotyledons = broad-leafed plants while monocotyledons = grasses. I can't understand its use in this context.

 

[Swiftgrade]

Sample taken on 14/6/21.

18% water content.

21 species detected:

Acer pseudoplatanus - Sycamore
Caltha palustris - Marsh marigold
Salix - Willow
Allium ursinum - Ramsons
Prunus avium - Wild Cherry
Ilex perado
Brassica rapa - Turnip
Prunus padus - Bird Cherry
Brassica oleracea -Cabbage
Conopodium majus - Pignut
Betula pubescens - Downy Birch
Anthoxanthum Ulex europaeus - Gorse
Juniperus communis - Juniper
Ficaria verna - Lesser Celandine
Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Acer - Maple
Calluna vulgaris - Heather
Acer obtusifolium
Malus pumila - Apple
Rubus - Bramble

 

[Wilco]

One of the scientists at the scheme, Dr. Anna Oliver, is leaving today after over 20 years there. Might be nice if anyone on here who's appreciated their results over the years pinged an email wishing her the best for the future.

[email protected]

 

[Beegarden]

One of the scientists at the scheme, Dr. Anna Oliver, is leaving today after over 20 years there. Might be nice if anyone on here who's appreciated their results over the years pinged an email wishing her the best for the future.

[email protected]

Done, Wilco. I sent my best wishes when I received my results. Dr Oliver gave a very informative talk to our BKA this year and is apparently leaving science completely; I didn't ask why she was leaving, but hope a replacement has been found finally.

 

[Bevy]

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but have only just opened my results.
They are quite perplexing, to the extent that I'm wondering if they've been mixed up!
My hive is in a small orchard at the foot of the Pennine hills with very little around except for fields and sheep. Sycamore, meadow grass, bilberry and buttercup I can understand, but I've never heard of Meadow Foam, which is showing at 57%. Google reveals that it is also called the poached egg plant and isn't a native. There are also three species of Eucalyptus showing when I've never seen even one in the area. On the other hand, I did see my bees foraging on fruit trees, rose bay willow herb and borage, none of which feature here.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The fact that you have lots of poached egg plant pollen doesn’t mean that’s what your honey is though. Maybe your sample just wasn’t representative enough. All those pollens are early aren’t they?Rosebay and Borage are later… and how much of those was there ?

 

[user 819]

Lots of gardeners use the P/E plant aka Limnanthes Douglasii as an easy to grow ground cover plant, it is especially like by polinators.

 

[Bevy]

There was zero Rosebay or Borage found in the sample and they were in bloom in June when the sample was taken, but, on reflection, maybe the nectar from those hadn't been capped yet. I'm very surprised that no apple/pear/plum was found though, because they had been blooming throughout the spring.

I shall certainly be on the lookout for Limnanthes Douglasii next year to see where the crafty girls might have been foraging. It must have been a large patch to account for 57% and I'm in a semi-rural area so they'd have to fly a mile before finding a significant built-up area with garden plants.

 

[Erichalfbee]

It must have been a large patch to account for 57%

Not necessarily. Lots of pollens are over represented because of their small size.
For example Rosebay pollen is 70μm in size and poached egg plant 20. The bigger pollen is largely filtered out by the bees the smaller not so it is over represented in the sample.

 

[Bevy]

This is all very fascinating. I must do some studying on pollen coefficients.

 

[PeaBee]

My sample was taken 16/06/21. Water content 17.8%. 10 species identified:

Brassica rapa (turnip) - c. 54%
B. oleracea (cabbage) - c.27%
Brassica spp - 12%
Brassica jancea (Chinese mustard)- c. 7%
Then dribs and drabs of five other spp.

Now, I can assure you that there's not a single turnip or cabbage growing within miles of my apiary. However looking at the local crop pie-chart provided with my results, the only Brassica is OSR - about 25% of the pie. Cereals (wheat and barley) account for 60% and sugar beat 15%.
I took this up with Anna last year as the results of the 2020 sample were similar . She explained that the identification of different brassica spp pollens is imprecise, hence the cornucopia of spp identified.
I wonder if the pollens are identified by an automated system or by eyeballing?

Brassica rapa cover a wide range of cultivars / subspecies and includes OSR and mustard etc.

 

[Beekeeper Brownie]

Not a lot variation in my spring sample from the praries of suffolk . I'm reading this as 93-95% OSR. I'm surprised the bean inlcusion is so low and not many hedgerow species.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

to the extent that I'm wondering if they've been mixed up!

Agree. Very different to previous year at same time. No clue where they found the borage in my sample.
. . . . Ben

 

[enrico]

When you see the amount of brassica pollen in these samples it is no wonder most honey crystallises!

 

[user 819]

I had another sample result come through, this one from summer last year honey was 14% /85 on the brix scale.
In all 23 Taxa's showed up in the sample.
Some 75% of this one came in as Brassica species.
How they got to Ethiopia & China god knows ?

Looks like I will have a bit of set honey to sell.


�

Common name
Brassica rapa	Turnip
Brassica oleracea	Cabbage
Brassica
Rubus	Bramble
Brassica juncea	Chinese Mustard
Brassicaceae	Crucifer
Brassica napus	Rape
Coriandrum sativum	Coriander
Brassica carinata	Ethiopian Rape
Rubus grossus
Rubus silvaticus
Magnoliopsida	Dicotyledons
Ligustrum ovalifolium	Garden Privet
Trifolium repens	White Clover
Hydrangea macrophylla
Pulicaria dysenterica	Common Fleabane
Jacobaea vulgaris	Common Ragwort
Cirsium arvense	Creeping Thistle
Centaurea cyanus	Cornflower
Brassica montana
Allium ursinum	Ramsons
Medicago sativa	Medick
Rhus typhina	Stag's-horn Sumach

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