What's flowering as forage in your area

[Antipodes]

Seeing trees blossoming here in Dorset. Too cold today for the girls to benefit and will probably be knocked back the cold/frosty mornings. Very unseasonal!

What sort of trees are they?

 

[Curly green finger's]

What sort of trees are they?

Maybe Autumn cherry they are flowering now.

 

[Antipodes]

Feijoa in full flower now

 

[Antipodes]

Are these a good source of nectar by any chance? Heaps near new apiary site.

 

[E&MBees]

Are these a good source of nectar by any chance? Heaps near new apiary site.

They look like Guelder rose. They have deep red hips in the autumn. My parents have guelder roses and they have bees visiting them.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Are these a good source of nectar by any chance? Heaps near new apiary site.

They are a wild single rose by the looks. Are they scented? Some would call them a dog rose.
Our single rambling rose is worked for pollen.. I've never seen them collecting nectar but I'm sure being as most single roses are scented that they produce nectar.Dog rose with honey bee ..

 

[Erichalfbee]

They look like Guelder rose. They have deep red hips in the autumn. My parents have guelder roses and they have bees visiting them.

Not Guelder rose
Guelder rose is a viburnum and looks like this


The pink rose is a Sweetbriar Rose

 

[E&MBees]

Not Guelder rose
Guelder rose is a viburnum and looks like this
View attachment 23202

The pink rose is a Sweetbriar Rose

Doh! I was thinking of Rosa Rugosa, but managed to write Guelder rose instead

 

[Antipodes]

Ok...sounds promising, thanks. There are so many of them growing over the fields and on the hillsides.
I'm chasing the nectar from this small tree actually....the prickly box which has just started flowering.
Looking at them brings the Malvina Reynolds song into my head! The photo also shows some of the briar rose in the foreground.

 

[Antipodes]

The white petals on the feijoa are fleshy and
View attachment VID_20201201_064551059.mp4
delicious. Mother blackbird is snatching mouthfuls to feed her babies...

 

[Antipodes]

Leatherwood just starting in the forest. You can see how they are really an understory tree. There were glorious syrupy birdsongs coming from deep within this Tolkien world.
Beaut man ferns (dicksonia antarctica) here too.
View attachment VID_20201213_154604147 (1).mp4

 

[Erichalfbee]

Leatherwood just starting in the forest. You can see how they are really an understory tree. There were glorious syrupy birdsongs coming from deep within this Tolkien world.

Now that is beautiful
I have one Eucryphia tree in my garden and it flowers so well and the bees love it

 

[Curly green finger's]

Leatherwood just starting in the forest. You can see how they are really an understory tree. There were glorious syrupy birdsongs coming from deep within this Tolkien world.
Beaut man ferns (dicksonia antarctica) here too.
View attachment 23494

Funny, your keeping this thread going at the moment thankyou very much I'm liking the videos and summer photos.
Keep it up you lucky duck.

Edit: I saw honey bees working Mahonia last Saturday for nectar the Mahonia was humming.. This was at the grandparents house while I was gardening nice calm sunny day 11c.

 

[masterBK]

Sunny day today and bees are out and working the Mahonia. Took lots of macro photos using 4K burst facility on my camera.
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[Curly green finger's]

Sunny day today and bees are out and working the Mahonia. Took lots of really good macro photos using 4K burst facility on my camera. Not prepared to show them on this site if I don't own copyright on the images uploaded..

It's suprising to see bees working the Mahonia for nectar is it a good source?

I've only ever noticed pollen being collected.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not prepared to show them on this site if I don't own copyright on the images uploaded..

Angie has explained quite clearly that they remain your copyright
She isn’t going to steal them and enter them into the Countryfile calendar competition.

 

[StephenT]

Wrong thread. Oops.

 

[Rowena]

It's suprising to see bees working the Mahonia for nectar is it a good source?

I've only ever noticed pollen being collected.

Went to check 3 of my hives on Friday and was so gobsmacked I videoed one of the hives as they had not realised it was only 7 degrees and we’re flying merrily between a large mahonia on the site and the hive! According to the owners of the garden the bees have been all over the plant on a regular basis. So whatever there is they like it. My other 2 hives were all tucked up and not flying at all.

Just trying to work out if it’s good or bad that they were flying. No dead ones about at the entrance either.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Went to check 3 of my hives on Friday and was so gobsmacked I videoed one of the hives as they had not realised it was only 7 degrees and we’re flying merrily between a large mahonia on the site and the hive! According to the owners of the garden the bees have been all over the plant on a regular basis. So whatever there is they like it. My other 2 hives were all tucked up and not flying at all.

Just trying to work out if it’s good or bad that they were flying. No dead ones about at the entrance either.

No real problems with them flying and foraging when the weather is OK.
I've observed gorse being worked at 8.5c that's the lowest but I'm not sure if Mahonia would produce nectar at 7c
Was it 7c in the sunshine? I've seen bees collecting nectar from Mahonia at 11c... Maybe they were collecting water from the Mahonia in the sunshine?
What did you see going into the hive?
Pollen etc?
Regards
Mark

 

[Rowena]

No real problems with them flying and foraging when the weather is OK.
I've observed gorse being worked at 8.5c that's the lowest but I'm not sure if Mahonia would produce nectar at 7c
Was it 7c in the sunshine? I've seen bees collecting nectar from Mahonia at 11c... Maybe they were collecting water from the Mahonia in the sunshine?
What did you see going into the hive?
Pollen etc?
Regards
Mark

Hi, the temperature was based on my car reading when arriving, admittedly the site is sheltered and there was a little sun, but even if that raised it slightly I was still surprised. I didn’t see pollen going in so must have been nectar, however on thinking the plants will have been in the sun for longer than the hive so we’re obviously able to provide something or the bees would not have continued working it.

Regarding water, the area in general was quite wet plus there is a small lake that the bees access which is closer, so they wouldn’t go there to collect water.

It maybe that they are just bees which go out in colder weather as a split from them on another site is very similar.