What's flowering as forage in your area

[Moobee]

The cabbage palms are throwing out some big flower spikes which seems earlier than usual.

 

[Murox]

Its all happening up here now, bit later this year by a couple of weeks but the warmer weather has brought most things along well.

 

[beeker]

Fields covered with dandelions here, and just the solitary bumble bumbling about, not a honey bee in sight , and I spend most of the day at work walking through them. Some starting to seed already, guess there's a better source of nectar.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Have a walk round the back of the hives this evening. See if they stink?
Dandelion pollen is really orange. Are they bringing any in?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hardly ever see bees on the dandelion, but there's no doubt they forage them intensively, as Dani says, wander around the hives in the evening and have a sniff. Dandelion honey is glorious stuff but when ripening smells like a teenager's stale sock (and not the happy one

 

[Erichalfbee]

Some starting to seed already,

It’s funny that. I’ve had dandelions out in my two fields for a month now. Just mumbling along. A fortnight of good warm weather and they are suddenly all out. What’s more the fact that they are seeding means they have been pollinated.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It’s funny that. I’ve had dandelions out in my two fields for a month now. Just mumbling along. A fortnight of good warm weather and they are suddenly all out. What’s more the fact that they are seeding means they have been pollinated.

yes, although the dandelions have been scattered about for a while, the last week or so has seen the fields and the lawn burst into life with them, now most are seeding.
I remember a few years ago when conditions were perfect for them - from rain, sunlight down to the wind, one day the whole of the valley was shrouded in what looked like a light mist but it was actually millions of dandelion clocks bursting in the breeze and gently floating around the whole area

 

[Swarm]

Just three feet behind the hives.

 

[The Poot]

Walking the dog in the field next to the garden, I saw several bees working hard on the dandelions - struggling to get between the petals.
Shame I didn’t have the camera with me.

 

[E&MBees]

I saw some sparrows digging their beaks into the dandelion flowers in my garden today. No obvious insects on the flowers. Not quite sure what they were up to.

 

[rolande]

Not big news but osr is blooming. What *is* good news is that its looking the best it has locally for 4 years and the weather has been kind. Talking to one farmer (who I don't generally think of as the most optimistic of men) with a substantial osr acreage, his new found enthusiasm was infectious. "Finally got fields of rape that I'm not ashamed of" was his greeting, followed by "and I haven't had to use a single treatment" no doubt a knock on effect of the crop being more or less sidelined in this area for a couple of years. All this with a big jump in prices will probably see more of the locals giving the crop another go next year.

 

[Wilco]

Horse chestnut really going for it, Hawthorn abs Hawthorn types have erupted into bloom. Apple going well. Currants probably nearing the end of flowering. Comfrey, bluebells and some meadow flowers. Borage in the garden. Most dandelions seeding now.

Irrelevant whataboutery.

"Dark matter" is just a convenient label for the cause of a set of observations that cannot currently be explained but have scientifically been demonstrated to occur.

There's no scientific evidence that ley lines, energy lines nor dowsing are actually real at all. They're more like the canals that Percy Lowell observed on Mars that were in reality most likely to have been a physiological effect. However, there are scientific demonstrations as to why some people believe dowsing exists, for example, and how the processes involved work.

James

Dark matter and dark energy are the 'God of the gaps' of physics IMO.

As for the 'canals' on Mars, what was observed were described as 'canaliculi' (Latin for channels, the root from which we derive 'canal' ftom) but some illiterate muppet didn't bother to check what that meant and it got popularised as 'canals', leading to the inference that Martian must exist.

Dowsing... I want it to be a thing.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Maybe the Ley lines are in my head and I take them with me wherever I go?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not big news but osr is blooming. What *is* good news is that its looking the best it has locally for 4 years and the weather has been kind. View attachment 31672

That is a thing of beauty if you are into OSR...lucky you.
I must admit these huge fields look lovely

 

[rolande]

That is a thing of beauty if you are into OSR...lucky you.
I must admit these huge fields look lovely

We rarely get a surplus from the osr (this year will be different), generally it flowers too early for our bees to do much although it does help them to build up nicely. We tend to do better with wild growing mustard which flowers about a month later than the rape, we have access to lots of that.

The neonicotinoid ban followed by a massive flea beetle attack almost shut down osr production in the near area but those farmers who hung in there will hopefully be rewarded this year.

 

[elainemary]

Meadow is starting to change - cowslips, daisies, dandelions, cuckoo flowers all out, the bees are foraging heavily on ribwort plantain pollen, pale lemon in colour.

Nest with 2 songthrush baby chicks on the edge of the meadow. Mum keeps pushing the young chicks out the nest but they can’t fly. Saw them at first on the drive beneath the meadow. Put them back twice in the nest, to be turfed out again. One chick has sadly died but the other is still alive. Mum visits it in the long grass & feeds, dive bombing anyone walking up the drive.

Our cat is grounded (now day 3) until the chick learns to fly.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hawthorn blooming with us and it's still bleedin cold

 

[StephenT]

Bees on the Holly. Forage and weather looking epic!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Our Holly is out but bees prefer the sycamore

 

[StephenT]

Our Holly is out but bees prefer the sycamore

I know we’ve got a load of maple near us which over now but not sure about sycamore. Will have a wander around. Horse Chestnut is in full bloom on Ealing Common but very few bees with brick red pollen coming into the hives. Could be collecting nectar from them though.