Which Areas Are Still Getting Pollen?

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Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
6,213
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Location
Norwich
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3 National Hives & 1 Observation Hive.(Indoors) & lots of empty boxes..
Be interesting to know in which areas of the UK bees are still bringing lots of pollen in, and is there any areas getting none?
 
Luton. Beds
lots of off white and some scallop roe orange
 
Loads coming in here in S.W Scotland ,Willowherb,Fuscia,Privet,Ragwort,Whins(Gorse),Oriental Poppy etc,etc,etc.
 
... and in addition to John's list maybe half of the colonies in Scotland are gorging on heather as we speak ....

PS There's no innuendo with 'gorging', is there?! I should word these posts more carefully .....
 
Stroud in Gloucestershire still has plenty of pollen coming in, and nectar, both from gardens (e.g. sunflowers, which seem very popular this year) and from flowers alongside the canal, e.g. Himalayan balsam, purple loosestrife & others.

A very "late" year by my reckoning, as not a lot happened here for most of May.
 
Both my hives are very busy all day long. Still a few coming in at 8 o'clock but very tired and missing the landing board...
 
Last edited:
West Cornwall, yep still bringing it in, mainly white and some yellow but all are very busy :willy_nilly:
Cheers
S
 
My bees have been very busy here near Swansea over the last few days. I have bees with white backs, lots and lots of overloaded white legs and some orange legs. we have a few fields of maize next to our farm and thought the bees might be getting pollen from there
 
2 of my colonies are bringing in evening primrose pollen. coincidently, these colonies are mother and daughter queens!
 
plenty in north wilts... another flush of clover, balsam, willow herb, wild mint and the last of the blackberry flowers (although they were still flowering in late october last year!) and wild growing budliah bushes.
Also marsh plants that I have no idea what the are. The butterflys and bumbles are also working hard.

Last Autumn hundreds of Somerford Steves bees were covering a patch of purple daisy type flowers I have in my garden last year... So I took the seeds and scattered them around an area of rough ground near my bees... fingers crossed!!

not tempted in the slightest to start feeding yet, and am hoping for a september flush of honey like last year :drool5:
 
purple daisy type flowers I have in my garden last year

odd thing, my bees dont look at the flowers in my garden and there are some nice bright pretty colours and shapes:willy_nilly: they just leave the hive, gain a bit of height and zoom off across the roof tops.
 
North cornwall a big thumbs up. Lots of pollen going in over the last couple days, don't know what plants it's coming from though.
 
odd thing, my bees dont look at the flowers in my garden and there are some nice bright pretty colours and shapes:willy_nilly: they just leave the hive, gain a bit of height and zoom off across the roof tops.

Bees often ignore the forage within 50-100 yards of the hive, it's thought to be a protection thing, trying to avoid bringing attention to the hive. I've not read any particular studies relating to just this, but I often see references to it in bee literature. Some varieties will forage closer to the hive than others.
 
odd thing, my bees dont look at the flowers in my garden and there are some nice bright pretty colours and shapes:willy_nilly: they just leave the hive, gain a bit of height and zoom off across the roof tops.

Bees dont normally forage with in a few metres of their own apiary except in winter when they all do, ie they all stick around their own hives. Risk of encouraging robbers. Good reason for having lots of willow around and planting crocus bulbs in apiary.
 
odd thing, my bees dont look at the flowers in my garden and there are some nice bright pretty colours and shapes:willy_nilly: they just leave the hive, gain a bit of height and zoom off across the roof tops.

I think they may be michalmas daisys (although I am rubbish at plant identification!)
My bees are more than three miles away, but Somerfords bees are probably about half a mile away. His bees are often in my garden (including catching at least one of his swarms in my bait box!:blush5:)
 
Willow herb and balsalm as of today but not a respectable flow to go with it and been minimal for last 2 weeks, also poor weather. Have had to feed 3 of 4 hives today. No honey laid down in supers for last 3 weeks (since I extracted), brood stores critically low. Have just removed all but one super left on one hive (and that is only there because of colony size) :(
 

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