OSR Watch

[MuswellMetro]

well Hertfordshire M25 corridor, first super of OSR about to come off, slower than a normal year but is incoming

i wonder if it will be a 14 day wonder or a longer season

 

[greengumbo]

Flowers starting to open north of Aberdeen.

How long does the OSR flowering last ?

 

[sansai]

Here on the heavy Oxford clays the rape is now just coming into flower, but the crops are very thin, so I don't think we can expect much of a bonanza this year

 

[parkranger]

Yesterday, A140 Ipswich/Norwich road around Diss area was heavy with the smell of rape nectar. Yellow in abundance both sides of the road but too far from my bees to take advantage of!

 

[witchcraft]

Its all out here (south mid Suffolk) A rich heady smell driving around last night - not today its blowing a hoolie

 

[herefordshirehoney]

Can someone confirm to me what is a rough guide to temps that allow nectar for OSR.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

One colony doing well on it so far, queuing up a second super which is more than they did last year.

Local thoughts are that weather permitting it will be a long season if not particularly profitable for the farmers.

 

[Haughton Honey]

Can someone confirm to me what is a rough guide to temps that allow nectar for OSR.

16c +

 

[Beeline]

OSR near finished

The OSR near us is just starting to lose it colour so looks like it's turning. Pitty because the temps seem to be on the way up.

We also have 30 acres of beans flowering in the next field although not sure what the honey crop is like off this. Anyone?

 

[flemage]

Yup nearly over here now as well all going green........boo!

 

[Essexgary]

Latest OSR

Hi all, just bumping this up as may be useful. Anyone know the state of 'yellowness' in mid beds? The couple of fields i use as a yardstick are green more than yellow now.. Was thinking (if ripe) of harvesting the final crop weekend after this coming one.

Gary

 

[poshpikey]

The fields are going green here in west dorset but there is still a fair bit of yellow esp. in north facing field corners. I might take osr honey off in 10 days?
One field in north Hampshire I saw a few days ago was still bright yellow - the pigeons had hit it hard in the winter and knocked it right back.

 

[lorrick]

Well the OSR flowered about 3 to 4 weeks ago, still have hundreds of acres of it here, but some of the fields are starting to fall off the other end of the is starting to flower ? Have about 2 to 3 more weeks of good stuff and acres of large Buttercups, I have never seen them so strong, the commons and greens up here are just a mass of yellow with them up here in sunny Suffolk ?

 

[dclewis]

The last few OSR flowers are just hanging on here, but the boxes are now off and 85kgs are in buckets from 5 productive hives, my best but latest spring harvest to date. It seems to be really fast to chrystalise this year, took 24 hours to solid once in the buckets.

 

[herefordshirehoney]

OSR field behind my field went a week ago but less than 400meters away new field seems to be going strong, so looks like I wont get any honey summer this year very disappointed . On the plus side they do love OSR, I cant change the supers fast enough for them to refill. Each hive has 4 supers on plus one has a brood box as supers too. Need to buy some more supers!

 

[Winker]

OSR field behind my field went a week ago but less than 400meters away new field seems to be going strong, so looks like I wont get any honey summer this year very disappointed . On the plus side they do love OSR, I cant change the supers fast enough for them to refill. Each hive has 4 supers on plus one has a brood box as supers too. Need to buy some more supers!

Yeah I took all mine off a few weeks back thinking it was finished around here, only to drive half a mile and find a new field in full bloom...Extracting more today

 

[poshpikey]

Took some off a week ago but left one hive that had a lot of unripened nectar in it until today.