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MODNOD

House Bee
Joined
Aug 19, 2010
Messages
115
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Location
Bedfordshire
Hive Type
National
Looks like my bees will be sitting in the middle of a 5 mile block of OCR this year.
In addition we have three orchards, 30 acre of white clover, 15 acre of dandylions, lime tree avenues, horsechestnut avenues.

Whats planted around you lot.
 
My hives are sited in London Green belt so for two miles to the North,East and West my hive are surrounded by small fields of horse pasture and Hay meadows and Conservation parkland. To the south are London gardens

so most of my honey is from brambles,hedgerows, dandelions and buttercups with a bit of garden exotic

My nearest OSR is 3miles to the north east and also 3.5miles to the north west, but normally my girls dont seem to forage either sites

But quite surprised how much winter OSR is planted this year, our BKAs OSR out apiary appears to be in a 5miles radius bowl of nothing much except winter OSR just south of MODNOD in NW Hertforshire

H
 
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My hives are sited in London Green belt so for two miles to the North,East and West my hive are surrounded by small fields of horse pasture and Hay meadows and Conservation parkland. To the south are London gardens

so most of my honey is from brambles,hedgerows, dandelions and buttercups with a bit of garden exotic

My nearest OSR is 3miles to the north east and also 3.5miles to the north west, but normally my girls dont seem to forage either sites

But quite surprised how much winter OSR is planted this year, our BKAs OSR out apiary appears to be in a 5miles radius bowl of nothing much except winter OSR just south of MODNOD in NW Hertforshire

H

Rothamsted ?
 
Looks like my bees will be sitting in the middle of a 5 mile block of OCR this year.
In addition we have three orchards, 30 acre of white clover, 15 acre of dandylions, lime tree avenues, horsechestnut avenues.

Whats planted around you lot.

If you remember 'Jaws' you'll remember the quote

We need a lot more hives! :rofl:
 
I count myself rather lucky.
An interested and supportive estate manager.
30 acres of rape and about 25 acres of field beans with a nice flowering overlap. Directly bordering very large flood meadows which are a very diverse forage site and an SSSI, along with the water courses which also bring early willow and then HB mid august onward and finally two villages within a very comfortable mile radius for some urban variety and due to the salt applied loads of roadside dandys to help things along.
There was a load of clover this year but for the devil I don't know where they got it!
Not in the question but privalleged to stand there and watch deer, buzzards, Kites and even Hen Harriers along with migratory scanes of geese.

(the break from the work) Life is good at the apiary!
 
One out apiary is physically dead centre of 100 acres of OSR for next spring.

The farmers wife takes about 4 jars of OSR soft set per month from me as it is her favourite type.

I also prefer OSR honey to most as I do not like strong tasting and also have a very sweet tooth.
 
my farmer friends tell me the comodities market for OSR has had the bottom drop out of it due to speculative intervention by the get rich quick mob in the city, and there are literally tens of thousands of megga tons of it held in massive silos on Canvey island (have we heard of similar speculative ventures forcing prices up... it seem to work the other way too!!)

Is OSR carcinogenic or hasn't it been tested??

So my farmer friends are planting Lindseed this year

(blue fields instead of yellow... this no doubt please the "giggle twins" party faithfull !!

It starts green and then turns blue... of course OSR starts green and then turns yellow.

I have planted a japanese maple !!! Starts green and then turns red!
 
I am fairly lucky. My house is within 1 mile of swathes of OSR wich is great for spring build-up. Also, as I live on a heathland golf course, I get the added benefit of a heather flow in Aug/Sep without having to transport any hives.!

Next year I plan to expand and start an apiary in my grandparent's field. The field is full of wild flowers and they live right in the middle of the Ashdown Forest- so no shortage of forage I expect...

Oh, I can't wait till spring...

Ben P
 
Plenty of wild flowers,clover,rosebay,bramble,gorse,hb,ect,and hundreds of square miles of bell and ling moorland....plus complete forrest of sweet chestnut tree's,lime,sycamore,apple orchards ect..all in the exmoor national park,sssi, ect...everything but OSR.....athough that grows within easy distance to move hives.
 
I read somewhere of a Victorian Beek taking his hives to the strawberries, after they had been on the apples: this was when the railway could get the Tamar Valley crop to the London markets in relatively few hours, to get the best prices.... but I can not find the book!!!

I can not remember seeing my bees on the strawberries behind my house.............
got a bumper crop of apples this past year tho!
 
Willow,hazel,sycamore,lime,clover and other wild flowers ,bramble and Ivy. Gorse and heather maybe a mile away; smallish Lakeland town 2 miles away so garden flowers there.
Apart from that sheep............baaaaaaaaaaa. Mind you, I did spot a field of OSR this spring next to Beetham Garden Centre some 5 miles away.
 
450+ acres of OSR within 1.5 miles, acres of woodland, vast grass meadows, The river Meon, vast wildlife nature reserve with plenty of Himalayan Balsam, miles of hedgerows and two massive garden centres.

Sounds perfect ?

1 in 5 of virgin queens successfully mated this year...
 
20% of virgin queens successfully mated this year...

That was not so good Mike...was that due to bad weather and timing do you think.
 
20% of virgin queens successfully mated this year...

That was not so good Mike...was that due to bad weather and timing do you think.

The weather wasn't ideal the first week after the first two virgins emerged as it was April and very windy, both failed to lay any worker brood after 4 weeks so I got two queens from a friend and both accepted quickly.

Second round of queen rearing three queens, weather was a little better in June and one began to lay after 2 weeks the other two queens never returned from mating flights. Thankfully I collected a couple of reasonable swarms and was able to combine colonies.
 
Yes, cold late spring did not help....and then perhaps swallows/swifts.
 
Rothamsted ?

well i worked at Rothampsted a long time ago , but our OSR sites are at London Colney and Markyate

i have an offer of an ex rothampsted site near nomansland common Sawbrigdeworth as the owner of the farm there is my the landowner of my site in mill Hill but it is unfenced and think it to near dog walking open common land
 
well i worked at Rothampsted a long time ago , but our OSR sites are at London Colney and Markyate

i have an offer of an ex rothampsted site near nomansland common Sawbrigdeworth as the owner of the farm there is my the landowner of my site in mill Hill but it is unfenced and think it to near dog walking open common land

I have an offer for the Husborne Crawley site which is trialing osr next year,but i don't need it as i am a 1000 yds away as the crow flys.
 
Modnod:
Do you have your farmers details, and have you asked him to contact you when he is about to spray his crops as they grow?
I am concerned as its my first year of an out apiary with 5 hives on it right now.
I don't know the farmers yet, all I ask is to be alerted the day before he sprays so I can lock the girls in for a day.
Is there indeed any risk involved anyone know?
Bob.
 
my farmer friends tell me the comodities market for OSR has had the bottom drop out of it due to speculative intervention by the get rich quick mob in the city, and there are literally tens of thousands of megga tons of it held in massive silos on Canvey island (have we heard of similar speculative ventures forcing prices up... it seem to work the other way too!!)

Is OSR carcinogenic or hasn't it been tested??

So my farmer friends are planting Lindseed this year

(blue fields instead of yellow... this no doubt please the "giggle twins" party faithfull !!

It starts green and then turns blue... of course OSR starts green and then turns yellow.

I have planted a japanese maple !!! Starts green and then turns red!

There you go again, icanhopit, going on about 'get rich quick mob'.

I'm no apologist for traders of any kind, but your constant references lack any context which leads me to believe they are based on ignorance and a lack of any awareness of the bigger picture.

Farmers have been a source not only of your hot City tips, but much of the move towards a more toxic and less diverse countryside. I'm not doubting the individual efforts of each individual farmer, nor their commitment to the preservation of the countryside. But, as a group, they were largely blind to the situation until subsidies started to dry up and they realised they were standing knee deep in the effluent of our own European 'Green Revolution' which they were very much a part of.
 
PSAFLOID are you a member of the CPRE?

just wondered as you seem to be peddleing out the same misgided image of the contryside

but I do agree.................

that farmers were paid subsadies to toxify the land in the intrests in profit... for the chemical companies!

it all adds up to an interesring debate
 

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