What's flowering as forage in your area

[Erichalfbee]

Hedgerows are full. Colonies black and orange are on top form. Bring it on.

 

[Dodge]

Brambles just starting to flower in urban Solihull and Lime trees are in their way.

 

[Skinfaxi]

 

[Skinfaxi]

Well Finman if you read this it looks like bees do go for beans. But it does not look like they feed from the developed flowers. Or they like the aphids honey dew

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don't they go through the holes bumblebees make in the flowers?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well the bramble may be just starting but we are definitely in a gap here.
I have some colonies with three supers which are very light. Feeding two splits which have been moved into full size hives.

 

[The Poot]

Bit of a gap here too, the supers I was going to take off had “munch arches“ in them and all food in the brood box had gone. The weather has not been good for a week though.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Field beans yeilding at the moment started extracting 54 supers and 9 brood boxes yesterday from the spring blossom,dandelions etc. we have 6 colony’s on the bean field bellow its 2 miles from my home on the clee .
Busy getting 50+ colony’s ready for moving to heather.
also moving colony’s to the clover /nectar rich fields next week.
Spring crop by my estimations @ 65lb per production colony so far the best spring crop to date.

 

[Polymorph]

Looking good cgf. Mine loving the purple raspberries flowering on the allotment. Really flowered well, though just starting to go over

 

[Nannysbees]

Phacelia is out and I love it, I've also put in borage so when that flowers it'll be a sea of lilac and blue. Will definitely be sowing this yearly

 

[Newbeeneil]

I was downing a bit of tidying up around th village this morning and saw my first bramble flowers of the season! Not a moment too soon for some of my nucs.

 

[Murox]

cotoneaster 'alive' with all sorts of bees a few days back.

----sorry the video clip isn't accepted----

 

[JamezF]

I was downing a bit of tidying up around th village this morning and saw my first bramble flowers of the season! Not a moment too soon for some of my nucs.

I saw my first fully-open bramble flowers today too.

James

 

[JamezF]

cotoneaster 'alive' with all sorts of bees a few days back.

I love cotoneaster. I really must try to propagate some cuttings from ours.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I love cotoneaster. I really must try to propagate some cuttings from ours.

James

'Horizontalis' is my favourite, althout it's supposed to be a ground hugger, with a bit of training you can grow it on a wall or trellis, or to drape down from a raised bed, and it gives you the most amazing layered effect.
I Got loads of it planted on the raised borders around our community carpark and at this time of year the area is alive with bumbles and butterflies.

 

[elainemary]

Huge flow on from the trees still. The highlight though is our Meadow - flowers starting to come out. Counted 107 early purple orchids in the lower part of the field last night. There were around 10 early purples last year so the orchid dust I’ve been scattering over last few years is leading to more emerging.

Common spotted orchid to follow, had over 100 last year so hopefully more this year. I can see the leaves coming up but flowers a month later. Takes 7 years from fine seed to flowering. Large variety of wildflowers, the meadow is now 10 years from seeding & I add plugs every year.

Lots of pollinators (honeybees are going for garden flowers and trees) buzzing about. A resident hare, that I see every morning is living in the meadow. Bird song is deafening, love the sound of curlews over head.

 

[pargyle]

Huge flow on from the trees still. The highlight though is our Meadow - flowers starting to come out. Counted 107 early purple orchids in the lower part of the field last night. There were around 10 early purples last year so the orchid dust I’ve been scattering over last few years is leading to more emerging.

Common spotted orchid to follow, had over 100 last year so hopefully more this year. I can see the leaves coming up but flowers a month later. Takes 7 years from fine seed to flowering. Large variety of wildflowers, the meadow is now 10 years from seeding & I add plugs every year.

Lots of pollinators (honeybees are going for garden flowers and trees) buzzing about. A resident hare, that I see every morning is living in the meadow. Bird song is deafening, love the sound of curlews over head. ☀

My goodness ... that is a lovely natural meadow .. reminds me of the meadows when I was a kid - you don't see many like that any more (More's the pity!).

 

[Gunner]

That wildflower meadow is exceptional and the stuff of my dreams! We have a National Trust green near us that has a very good wildflower patch, including marjoram & orchids, which is slowly developing & expanding.

Like CGF we have hives on 150 acres of field beans which are yielding but not in huge quantities. It has been a very good spring harvest so far with over 1500 lbs from 30 production colonies & still extracting to free up the supers.

First brambles in flower & being worked.

 

[elainemary]

My goodness ... that is a lovely natural meadow .. reminds me of the meadows when I was a kid - you don't see many like that any more (More's the pity!).

Thankyou it brings joy every year and just gets better. Here are some pics from 10-11 years ago when we started to clear this overgrown field - long neglected but fundamentally unimproved grassland. Then harrowed ready for seeding.

The RSPB donated basic meadow seed - meadow grasses, yellow rattle, eyebright, meadow buttercup and of course original seed buried deep in the soil. I then germinated and grew over 1000 plugs of perennial wildflowers a year for the last 10 years and planted in the meadow. Have also sprinkled orchid seed and other wildflower seed collected locally. It’s cut each august after the yellow rattle and most of the wildflowers have seeded and our farmer neighbour puts sheep on the aftermath and he takes the hay for his cows and sheep. Win-win for both of us. I now collect some of the seed late summer and donate to others interested in creating a patch locally. Has over 40 species of wildflowers and 20 species of meadow grasses.

Has been a long project but you can’t rush good things! Like you, I have memories of growing up in rural Lincolnshire, collecting and pressing wildflowers for school projects and have always wanted to recreate one. Sadly we’ve lost 96% of our wildflower meadows since the last world war

 

[Wilco]

Thankyou it brings joy every year and just gets better. Here are some pics from 10-11 years ago when we started to clear this overgrown field - long neglected but fundamentally unimproved grassland. Then harrowed ready for seeding.

The RSPB donated basic meadow seed - meadow grasses, yellow rattle, eyebright, meadow buttercup and of course original seed buried deep in the soil. I then germinated and grew over 1000 plugs of perennial wildflowers a year for the last 10 years and planted in the meadow. Have also sprinkled orchid seed and other wildflower seed collected locally. It’s cut each august after the yellow rattle and most of the wildflowers have seeded and our farmer neighbour puts sheep on the aftermath and he takes the hay for his cows and sheep. Win-win for both of us. I now collect some of the seed late summer and donate to others interested in creating a patch locally. Has over 40 species of wildflowers and 20 species of meadow grasses.

Has been a long project but you can’t rush good things! Like you, I have memories of growing up in rural Lincolnshire, collecting and pressing wildflowers for school projects and have always wanted to recreate one. Sadly we’ve lost 96% of our wildflower meadows since the last world war

Can I buy some seed from you?