Rapeseed??

[gingerbees]

Near our 2 hives, a farmers field has just come into bloom with yellow flowers, he sowed them in March. They look remarkably like oil seed rape. Yellow flowers with 4 petals and pods on the stalks.
Is it likely to be rapeseed? The bees are bringing in lemon yellow pollen. The plants are low to the ground and thinly dispersed unlike the early rapeseed fields. More like a wild flower meadow.

If so - optimistically - they start to fill a super, how long can we leave the honey?

It's our second year and we have yet to harvest any honey as beekeepers, the bees are doing great this year and have expanded well after the winter.

Advice much appreciated.

 

[Queens59]

Sounds like it could be Rape - it can be planted when you say...As soon as you can shake a frame and no honey spray out is the time to take the frames...if you wait for them to cap it, you could be too late...

 

[beebopalula]

Sounds like mustard, but I did not think it was grown that fat North or West.

 

[beebopalula]

Sounds like mustard, but I did not think it was grown that far North or West.

 

[rook66]

Spring sown rape is a different variety to Autumn sown and normally the bees dont go near it.

 

[Into the lions den]

Spring sown rape is a different variety to Autumn sown and normally the bees dont go near it.

?????

I disagree completely. Its a fabulous crop for conditioning the bees for the ehather if nothing else, and have taken (albeit not for the last three years at least due to weather) two supers a hive from it many times.

There are actually two common species of rape grown spring sown, and the normal one os the same as the winter type, Brassica napus, with a range of available varieties. There is also Brassica campestris grown, but this one tends to be a bit more sparse in its growth but produces oil of high quality. You can tell it easily as ithas shinier leaves and the flowers are a bit smaller.

Going back to the OP. Could be spring rape, but from the sowing date more likely a cover crop of mustard that has come into flower. We get it as far north as here so the idea you are too far north is ot valid. Not grown for harvest though, just a cover crop. Have seen the bees go completely nuts on mustard in the correct conditions, but in many years get nothing. Plae yellow pollen, lighter and more lemony than OSR pollen, seems a fair description to me.

Up and about for a bee shift, hence the response time.........have not soiled the bed, honest.

 

[justme]

So how far North is that/are you ITLD?

 

[george]

I get more honey from the Spring sown than Autumn . Could be that the colony is of a decent size by then I suppose ?

 

[alanf]

Shooting country? Mustard spring sown is useful for releasing pheasant poults into in august. Sparser than a crop would be, it's easy to drive/beat through the dry stalks in late autumn.

 

[johnfly]

So how far North is that/are you ITLD?

as he said that he was up and about for a bee shift, I presume that he was moving bees north to the heather so I would think he was talking about the north side of the wall, border

 

[Luminos]

So how far North is that/are you ITLD?

ITLD is, in fact, Santa Claus.
That's how far north.

 

[Into the lions den]

ITLD is, in fact, Santa Claus.
That's how far north.

lol.....one mark to you! I applied for that job though, but was too fat and too grumpy!

Home base is in Perthshire. Todays runs were from the home area to both Aberdeenshire (1 load) and Invernesshire (2 loads).

3 trucks, every day, for three weeks. 970 up by tonight, already feeling jaded.

 

[gingerbees]

Really useful comments, we are in the middle of a farm who tries mostly to be organic, no spraying! Cover crop would fit, it is also shooting land, Brassica campestris fits the description too.
Thanks Queens59 for the honey advice & ITLD for crop advice. Very helpful.

 

[Poly Hive]

ITLD ranges as far north as Aberdeenshire and yes spring sown does produce though "in the old days" nothing as profuse as the winter sown but that does not produce like it did due to the much shorter flowering period. It used to last 6 weeks or so.

Is spring sown worth a move to? It can be but it does granulate VERY fast.

I used to move to it in Aberdeenshire BTW.


PH