What's flowering as forage in your area

[Curly green finger's]

What does banking boxes mean?

Adding more honey boxes banking capped supers above,a fair bit of woodland has been cleared over the last 2/3 years a lot more rosebay flowering

 

[Erichalfbee]

Adding more honey boxes banking capped supers above,a fair bit of woodland has been cleared over the last 2/3 years a lot more rosebay flowering

Ah..that's what I do but I never knew there was a name for it

 

[Curly green finger's]

Adding supers Up on the moors this morning.

 

[Antipodes]

Adding supers Up on the moors this morning.View attachment 33368View attachment 33369

Looks glorious there. Beautiful blue day too.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Looks glorious there. Beautiful blue day too.

It is a lovely day not a cloud in site !
Has the heather flow started else where?

 

[Monbees]

It is a lovely day not a cloud in site !
Has the heather flow started else where?

Do 'the moors' belong to anyone or no-one, or everyone? Do beekeepers who take hives up to the moors need a licence or something?

 

[The Poot]

Adding supers Up on the moors this morning.View attachment 33368View attachment 33369

What a lovely place to call your office!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Do 'the moors' belong to anyone or no-one, or everyone? Do beekeepers who take hives up to the moors need a licence or something?

No license most moors are owned by a trust or farmers or toffs.

 

[user 20297]

Perhaps the complainant can’t tell the difference twixt Balsam and Rosebay. Well they are both purple/pinkish so maybe understandable.

Good point. Well made.

 

[The Poot]

Not much in flower, most stuff brown and withered, but this buddleia is still sucking up moisture from somewhere.

 

[JamezF]

I think our soil has completely run out of moisture. The sycamore leaves are starting to shrivel and one or two of them are actually dying back.

James

 

[CaptainCymru]

Himalayan balsam is still in full flow down on the riverbanks of Exeter , bees are working it hard! Will leave my supers on for another few weeks I think !

 

[andrew_r]

My bees were all over Hairy Willowherb today, whether this is any good for nectar or not is debatable but there was plenty of yellow pollen coming from it.

Andrew.

 

[CaptainCymru]

Took these photos during my morning run , everything else seems scorched with this heat ! I’m wondering with this weeks rains if there will be a surprise mini flow !

 

[JamezF]

Had a nose around the hives this evening and there are quite a few ghostly bees coming back, so I assume they're hitting the Himalayan Balsam somewhere. I don't know of any in the area, but there are at least three different streams within a comfortable flying distance so I assume it will be from one of those.

James

 

[user 20297]

Himalayan balsam is still in full flow down on the riverbanks of Exeter , bees are working it hard! Will leave my supers on for another few weeks I think !

Had a nose around the hives this evening and there are quite a few ghostly bees coming back, so I assume they're hitting the Himalayan Balsam somewhere. I don't know of any in the area, but there are at least three different streams within a comfortable flying distance so I assume it will be from one of those.

James

It's gone ballistic with our bees too,
If the following statement is true (it contradicts what I've read here previously), it's no wonder the bees are hitting it.

"This invasive is a nectar factory. Each flower produces about 0.5 mg of sugar per hour, a rate far higher than any European plant; flowers of most species yield less than 0.1 mg/h.!

https://scottishpollinators.wordpress.com/tag/himalayan-balsam/

 

[JamezF]

it contradicts what I've read here previously

I suspect that we have to take some care in how we're interpreting the behaviour of the bees when compared with what we know about the plant. It may be a huge nectar source, but does that necessarily mean that bees will visit it in preference to something else? The impression I have from my reading is that bees may do something like a cost/benefit analysis on sources of forage, so if there are flowers that produce less nectar but are significantly "less costly" to visit then they may prefer those over a nectar-rich flower that requires more work (because it's further away, perhaps). This might lead beekeepers to believe that bees aren't interested in a particular source of forage when they certainly would be if it weren't for the availability of one they consider better.

(And of course there's always the possibility that they just didn't find the better source of forage, though I'm not sure how likely that is.)

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

I suspect that we have to take some care in how we're interpreting the behaviour of the bees when compared with what we know about the plant. It may be a huge nectar source, but does that necessarily mean that bees will visit it in preference to something else? The impression I have from my reading is that bees may do something like a cost/benefit analysis on sources of forage, so if there are flowers that produce less nectar but are significantly "less costly" to visit then they may prefer those over a nectar-rich flower that requires more work (because it's further away, perhaps). This might lead beekeepers to believe that bees aren't interested in a particular source of forage when they certainly would be if it weren't for the availability of one they consider better.

(And of course there's always the possibility that they just didn't find the better source of forage, though I'm not sure how likely that is.)

James

Well my bees must be strange. Maybe there are different varieties of Balsam. There is masses here and it has got wet feet yet very few bees visit. Every year I hang on treating for the balsam and every year I get zilch

 

[Sutty]

Some of mine are on the balsalm but it's a minority, you'd expect them to all switch to it once found if it's so much better than other nectar sources! There's a fair bit not far away from the hives.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I suspect that we have to take some care in how we're interpreting the behaviour of the bees when compared with what we know about the plant. It may be a huge nectar source, but does that necessarily mean that bees will visit it in preference to something else? The impression I have from my reading is that bees may do something like a cost/benefit analysis on sources of forage, so if there are flowers that produce less nectar but are significantly "less costly" to visit then they may prefer those over a nectar-rich flower that requires more work (because it's further away, perhaps). This might lead beekeepers to believe that bees aren't interested in a particular source of forage when they certainly would be if it weren't for the availability of one they consider better.

(And of course there's always the possibility that they just didn't find the better source of forage, though I'm not sure how likely that is.)

James

nearest balsam to the home apiary is on a floodplain a few hundred yards away (bounded on one side by a stream and another by a river) then the river is lined with HB to the East and West for miles. Bees hardly ever touch it but fly two miles to the heather instead.