Oilseed rape cappings

[Beekeeper Brownie]

So I've now finished harvesting oilseed rape for the season. After my first harvest on May 9th I put the wet cappings into English feeders with the clear piece over the access hole back on to the hives I extracted from to dry them out. I would do this again but given the brambles are just opening up here, is there much risk of the honey left on the OSR cappings causing the bramble honey to crystalise quickly if I feed it back now? Or is it such a small amount it should not affect it? I have not finished extracting OSR honey and gone straight into a bramble flow before.

What are peoples thoughts? Or how do you deal with cappings?

Thanks BB

 

[drex]

I routinely give them osr cap pings to clean up. Never had a problem with crystallised Autumn crop.

 

[Tim.S]

Blackberry (not bramble as too early) will crystalize on its own anyway.

 

[Repwoc]

Blackberry (not bramble as too early)

??

 

[Beekeeper Brownie]

??

I was thinking the same!

Around here people use the two together Bramble and Blackberry being same species! Bramble being the plant and blackberry being the fruit of said plant.

 

[Tim.S]

In my part of the world down sarf the Blackberries flower first, usually bigger fruit than the later bramble which flowers roughly 2 weeks later. There is much confusion online about this (don't bother with wiki which is riddled with errors). It is thought that the earlier flowering forms are escapees from cultivated garden varieties that have worked their way into the wild population whereas the smaller fruited later flowering item is the real deal. They have very different flavours, the bramble being very subtle taste. Botanists don't want to play with this nomenclatural hotch potch so they are both listed as Rubus fruticosus to simplify what most people have no knowledge of, and if they did probably wouldn't care about anyway!

 

[Beekeeper Brownie]

Fair enough Tim, around here (Suffolk) I am only aware of the smaller fruited real deal, I believe. I could be wrong, every day is a school day

 

[Erichalfbee]

Been posted here before but can’t recall when
There is the Dewberry first which looks like a bramble, has whiter flowers, and the leaves have five leaflets and the Blackberry or bramble which flowers a little later, has a pinker flower and the leaves have three leaflets.
The leaflets might be the other way round.

 

[Tim.S]

This is precisely why common names are such a nightmare and the Linnaean system was devised. Take bluebells for example, grassland flower Campanula rotundifolia in Scotland and spring bulb Hyacinthus non-scriptus down south. There are many more examples where common names just confuse things.

On various courses I have been on we were asked to name our entire meal by Linnaean latin for example just to keep us on our toes!

 

[Popparand]

This is precisely why common names are such a nightmare and the Linnaean system was devised. Take bluebells for example, grassland flower Campanula rotundifolia in Scotland and spring bulb Hyacinthus non-scriptus down south. There are many more examples where common names just confuse things.

On various courses I have been on we were asked to name our entire meal by Linnaean latin for example just to keep us on our toes!

Blimey. Now that would be an appetite killer!

 

[Colin reilly]

Yes, usually more certainty if you can use the Latin name. I refer to the Rubus species with large white petals, which form fruits with large but fewer drupelets as Dewberry, and they us usually flower earlier than the main-crop of bramble. There are dozens of species of bramble in UK and Ireland often with slightly differing characteristics.

 

[masterBK]

Brambles are indeed an aggregate species made up of microspecies (which is why it is classified as Rubus fructicosus agg.Also Blackberries are not even Berries! What is also odd is that although they have flowers, which produce both nectar and pollen, quite often they produce seed without fertilisation. This is known as apomixis (for those who want to look it up. I think this also occurs in Dandelions). Some Brambles are polyploid with several sets of chromosomes