plant identification

[mexbigshow]

can some one tell me what this plant is, it is in my back yard at home and everything is attracted to it, honey bees, bumbles, flies, wasps and butterfly

 

[Swarm]

Ivy.

 

[huntsman666]

Ivy. Very important late forage.

 

[mexbigshow]

cheers swarm, i thought it was some sort of ivy, its a bit later to flower than the stuff on the allotment and theres more buds and there seems to be some in every other yard around here all in reach of the bees

 

[Erichalfbee]

The lanes here stink of it. The bees are packing it in with 50% of the bees loaded so heavily with pollen they often miss the entrance.
It has replenishing nectaries

 

[Chrisfnvs]

We have lots of ivy in the garden most of which has only just become ready for the bees to forage, a small area was ready two weeks ago, that attracted mostly wasps and flies only a few bees, oddly this patch had no scent but the rest has a very strong scent and is attracting mostly bees! nice photo by the way

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

Umm, well all the above.....

 

[countryman]

poor car below some of mine has changed colour thanks to the pollen bombs where they coming back so loaded

 

[Dewin Dwl]

I have no idea how they fly with the payloads I've been seeing. I've placed slates by the entrances as a "bee catcher" as they seem to give up flying some four inches from the entrance!

INDUSTRIOUS!

 

[Cazza]

I like the smell of ivy.

Can we discuss ivy pollen? The hedgerow pollen is a kind of yellowy green isn't it? (Pollen guide confirms this.) Two beekeepers recently told me ivy pollen was red? They were convinced of this.Is there a special red variety that I have never seen or are they mad?
Cazza

 

[susbees]

Bright yellow, and tonnes of it. Felt bad that I'd left a nuc with a QE single bee disc entrance in place and the stuff was getting knocked off into a pile but the loads are huge. Sorted now....and wasps no longer an issue here.

 

[rockdoc]

If you get lucky, you may see the nectar turned to sugar as in this photo. Its a poor example, but illustrates very well how quickly this stuff crystallizes in the hive. By the way, we still have wasps about sadly. I found some on bits of old comb.

 

[Skyhook]

I like the smell of ivy.

Can we discuss ivy pollen? The hedgerow pollen is a kind of yellowy green isn't it? (Pollen guide confirms this.) Two beekeepers recently told me ivy pollen was red? They were convinced of this.Is there a special red variety that I have never seen or are they mad?
Cazza

The latter

 

[itma]

Can we discuss ivy pollen? The hedgerow pollen is a kind of yellowy green isn't it? (Pollen guide confirms this.) Two beekeepers recently told me ivy pollen was red? They were convinced of this.Is there a special red variety that I have never seen or are they mad?
Cazza

There are lots of different ivies.
I don't know how many pollen colours there are.
But Bristol Beekeepers http://www.bristolbeekeepers.org.uk/ online guide has it as an orangy-yellow ochre. (Its a website using Flash, click on the flower icon in their panel at top left to get to the pollen guide.)

My lot are bringing in three different colours of pollen. I think the heavy loads (near overload - makes landing tricky) of dark orange/yellow must be ivy and the really small loads of off-white are likely fushia. The mid-size loads of lighter orange/yellow colour I'm not sure about. Could easily be a different ivy - we aren't short of it round here!