OSR flow - when does it begin?

[Chris Luck]

we are hitting only 12-14 degs C.

That won't necessarily be the temperature in full sun on the flowers though, that will be quite a bit higher, it's all a bit tricky.

Chris

 

[wightbees]

Bees drawing out and 2/3s filled with osr.
its not been over 14 c for a while.

 

[beesleybees]

Bees drawing out and 2/3s filled with osr.
its not been over 14 c for a while.

is it definately from OSR? Not doubting you but yesterday i learned that theres a chance we may not get a proper flow from osr as its got to be at least 20 degrees for this to happen

you have now given me hope

 

[Finman]

.
Forecast promises 17C on Sunday. We have nothing here to forage. Perhaps some alder pollen (Alnus incana).

 

[ROACHMAN]

Ive got loads of blackthorn and dandelion in flower at the moment, will these plants yield nectar in this chilly weather?

 

[Chris Luck]

Spring Native species produce nectar at much lower temperatures, some as low as 3 or 4°C such as Speedwell, so no problem with Blackthorn and Dandelion. OSR and other modern crops have been hybridised to maximise yield and land use, not to fit hand in glove with other species.

Chris

 

[Poly Hive]

I do not blieve this 20C figure.

I have seen it flowing at much less, 15C no bother provided there is the humidity. Cooler but humid... gusher.

PH

 

[Finman]

Ive got loads of blackthorn and dandelion in flower at the moment, will these plants yield nectar in this chilly weather?

dandelion foraging is possible in low temp because in bright sunshine the ground level is warmer than upper air layers.

But to get honey yield uder 15C is dreaming.

What ever, sunny weather inpires brooding and main thing is that brooding continues.
You cannot allways win.
.

 

[Finman]

I do not blieve this 20C figure.

I have seen it flowing at much less, 15C no bother provided there is the humidity. Cooler but humid... gusher.

PH

to see bees foraging and extract 40 - 60 kg rape honey from one hive
are very different things.

I have harvested 35 years rape honey and I know quite much about if. It is my main yield plant.

Here, when day temp is 17C yoy really can forget extracting, what ever the plant is. Bees really eate all what they forage in these conditions.

Quite often I get 15 kg dandelion honey per hive, but if it comes a rainy week, they eate all.
5 kg or half box is not yield to me.

15C temp + bad wind and bees cannot forage. "I saw a bee" is very different from fact that yard has half million foragers.



Dreaming dreaming dreaming. But it does not make any harm.

 

[Finman]

.
Actually rape is a plant of warm weather.
We cultivate rape here on its northern limits.
200 km to north and rape is there very rare.

You may put seed into soil in the first week of May. Then you do the same in the first week of June and fields will bloom at same time.

 

[oliver90owner]

I don't know what the actual temperatures have been for the last two weeks but I do know my bees have mostly gone 'backwards' on the OSR. Still some to check, but I am not overly hopeful of a decent crop. Nothing I can do about it, so no point in worrying more than making sure they all have enough to get through the cold patch.

I daresay that a southerly aspect should be sheltered a bit from northerly winds, so there may well be exceptions and localised temps may be high enough, but that doesn't seem to be the case a around here at the moment. Just too cold.

 

[wightbees]

The temps here on the island are very different for example.
The island has an area of about 147 square miles,but the temps very a bit depending on location.

Todays temps in location
newport 14.1 c
Bleakdown 12.6
Niton 13.1
Freshwater 11.4
Brighston 13.4

 

[Finman]

Australians have made a report "Honey bees on canola", 4 pages.
Canola is first yiels plant after their winter. It said there that bees can forage under temp of 12C but they achieve maximum efficacy above 19C.

There are too advices how to avoid swarming and what factors make the bees swarm on canola.

I was in England ten days about 15 y ago. I looked closely a blooming rape flowers. There were huge nectar droplets inflowers. The maximum temp was +7C in those days and As i have written, I scrabbed ice from car window every morning. It was 2 first week of May.

How stong (sugar content) the droplets are in moist low emp, who knows.

 

[BBG]

What Finman is saying is right and borne out by what we're experiencing in this field pictured below.

We are feeding fondant to the one on the left and have given two frames of stores to the one at right.

NOT in the photograph is the Swarm we hived last Thursday, they are now in the middle.

At first the weather was warm and they gained .7Kg over two days then the weather turned cold and they lost .5Kg over two days. Today we gave them 1L Ambrosia syrup and they had put on .5Kg.

There is no 'heady' smell from the OSR yet - so we wouldn't say there has been a nectar flow apart from two days or an hour or so.

The bees are going in the opposite direction to the OSR, we think to village gardens, dandelions, gorse etc.

Hope this helps with the debate!

 

[Poly Hive]

We had serious hail here for near an hour tonight and that really won't have helped at all.

PH

 

[nonstandard]

We have fields of OSR across the road from us here but the temp has barely been above 10 deg C for the last two weeks; the result of this is that I have had to put some fondant back on my biggest colonies to tide them through as their stores are running so low. It makes me wonder how many others have bees that may be struggling at the moment.

 

[Cazza]

I don't know what the actual temperatures have been for the last two weeks but I do know my bees have mostly gone 'backwards' on the OSR. Still some to check, but I am not overly hopeful of a decent crop. Nothing I can do about it, so no point in worrying more than making sure they all have enough to get through the cold patch.

I daresay that a southerly aspect should be sheltered a bit from northerly winds, so there may well be exceptions and localised temps may be high enough, but that doesn't seem to be the case a around here at the moment. Just too cold.

Exactly the same here. Double brood stuffed full, all ready to go but too cold for decent OSR flow. Frustrating but nothing to be done.As it's my main crop I'm hoping for better weather next week.
Cazza

 

[BeeJayBee]

I daresay that a southerly aspect should be sheltered a bit from northerly winds, so there may well be exceptions and localised temps may be high enough, but that doesn't seem to be the case a around here at the moment. Just too cold.

Very cold where we are too, and even though we're mostly south facing there's a vile, freezing, east wind as well as hail showers.

The bees are going [...]we think to village gardens, dandelions, gorse etc.

We're out of range for OSR, so our bees are totally dependent on gardens and hedgerows, most of which seem to be hanging fire at the moment, although there is serious bird box activity so maybe they know something we don't about future weather conditions.

 

[beesleybees]

maybe its time to look for some spring sown OSR

 

[Poly Hive]

Spring OSR is a minor flow compared to the autumn sown varieties.

PH