Pollen still coming in

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Joined
Nov 9, 2008
Messages
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Location
S.E. Cornwall
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
Enough
Saw some of my bees yesterday still bringing in pollen!
It was a baigey/brown.
No ideas what it was.bee-smillie
 
I saw a little on mine yesterday as well, similar colour. They were very active yesterday afternoon for an hour, it was just like the summer 2/3pm tea break scenario.

Ian
 
Ours are still bringing some in, but it looks really scrappy on their legs as there isn't much, but it's coming none the less
 
Ling Heather is my immediate instinct.
There are a few bushes of it on edges of peoples gardens.
 
Mine have been out and about a lot, but bringing back precious little and having hefted the box today, it is a lot lighter than a couple of weeks ago.

So I'm going to get some fondant on in the morning and weekly to make sure I give them a chance to make it through the winter.
 
mine are bringing home large amounts of almost white pollen.
Might it be Himalayan balsam?
 
they usually have shrouding with the balsamm...do the bees have a dusting of the pollen on their backs? All the balsam has gone up here, it went when the rains flooded the river.
 
psafloyd,

They will not be flying for nothing. Bees are not that stupid. Cleansing flights, water, nectar and pollen are the options (along with short orientation flights for young bees). So they are likely bringing back water to dilute honey for brood food.

Regards, RAB
 
psafloyd,

They will not be flying for nothing. Bees are not that stupid. Cleansing flights, water, nectar and pollen are the options (along with short orientation flights for young bees). So they are likely bringing back water to dilute honey for brood food.

Regards, RAB

Thanks, RAB. I know they know best, but I was already concerned the box was under weight, but it was an awful lot lighter than when I hefted it last to get an idea of what it was like after I was more encouraged by their progress..

I am encouraged they are active on reasonable days, but fear they won't have sufficient stores without more feeding.
 
Thanks, RAB. I know they know best, but I was already concerned the box was under weight, but it was an awful lot lighter than when I hefted it last to get an idea of what it was like after I was more encouraged by their progress..

I am encouraged they are active on reasonable days, but fear they won't have sufficient stores without more feeding.

It's difficult isn't it when you don't have the experience to know what " enough " feels like and it's too cold to go for a nosey in there. I must say that when we put the mouse guard on, they had stuck the entrance block down so I had to lift the hive back a bit so we could unstick the block, and I thought it was much lighter than when I lifted it all by mistake after they'd glued the brood box to the super when replacing the thymol strips. I'm going to discuss it with my mentor, but I know what you mean.
 
Italian queen by any chance? Or maybe from NZ? If they don't know when to slow brooding and end up eating themselves out of house and home (food converted to larvae), you may well have an on-going problem.

Regards, RAB
 
Mine are bringing in a bit of dark brown/black pollen in reasonable-ish amounts. Only had one day this week when the weren't flying!
 
Italian queen by any chance? Or maybe from NZ? If they don't know when to slow brooding and end up eating themselves out of house and home (food converted to larvae), you may well have an on-going problem.

Regards, RAB

Ours is a hawiian carni queen. The weather has been very cold up here for a long time now. I don't know if I'm right, it's just a feeling I have. I may be totally wrong....this is the dilemma when you have no experience with how heavy something should feel.

Also, i've just thought, I lifted it back, not clear from the feet....that would make a difference I suppose. Huh, this is tricky.
 
they usually have shrouding with the balsamm...do the bees have a dusting of the pollen on their backs? All the balsam has gone up here, it went when the rains flooded the river.

no, no shrouding...just large leg basket fulls of white pollen.
 
My Carniolians are still buzzing around bringing in ? ivy pollen ?
The NZ crosses are not quite as busy
The Greeks are all at home..... packed with stores plus a super for good measure... probably worrying about the economic crisis back home !
 
Temp never higher than 3c today .-6c at 8 o'clock this morning !
My ladies stayed in doors (best place for them :))

John Wilkinson
 
You are right not to believe it. I think your thermometer must have been directly in the sun and so needs a more reliable position in order to reliably measure the air temperature.

Of course if you have 17 degrees C and can spare a little . . . I'm sure that we would all be eternally, well for a few seconds, grateful. :)
 
You are right not to believe it. I think your thermometer must have been directly in the sun and so needs a more reliable position in order to reliably measure the air temperature.

Of course if you have 17 degrees C and can spare a little . . . I'm sure that we would all be eternally, well for a few seconds, grateful. :)

:eek: minus 4 this morning !

max 12 degrees on my propper thermometer!
17 was recorded on a chinese import, now in my dustbin!!"!!

Lucky for us to live in such a sheltered valley...... only have seen snow here 5 times in 15 years (settled snowballing type snow that is)
 

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