Worst Start to a Season I Can Remember ??

[Fatbee]

Thanks, I'll be giving my local farmer friend a nudge about that then, he's stopped growing beans as not a good enough return - his fields are a wheat desert for my bees this year

Do that - good to encourage crop diversity although with more grown price and returns will be even poore. Lot depends upon how their cropping cycles are structured.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Good to hear about beans! Lot more beans being grown this year because they count towards farmers greening targets under changes to subsidy payments.

it fixes nitrogen in the soil, and then they follow on with wheat, well they do round here.

 

[snelgrove]

I had a huge crop of honey, off field beans last year. I could see all the bees coming back over the hedge from the fields. Some warm days, the air was almost black with foragers.

am I rite that bees can only forage off field beans after bumble bees have chewed the Base of the flower. honey bees are unable to collect t nectar as tongues are to short. seemed I read this year's ago

 

[B+.]

am I rite that bees can only forage off field beans after bumble bees have chewed the Base of the flower. honey bees are unable to collect t nectar as tongues are to short. seemed I read this year's ago

If that were true, they wouldn't get many beans pollinated

 

[Luka22]

We might have a chance to get on a field of beans. How is the potential for a crop on beans and how is the Honey taste? Is it any nice or would we have to mix it with other Summer Honey? I have never really heard of the "good old Bean Honey"...

So all in all, is it worth going for beans?

 

[snelgrove]

If that were true, they wouldn't get many beans pollinated

the behaviour of honey bees visiting field beans by jb free, states that honeybees collect nectar from holes chewed by bumblebees, new I had read it somewhere

 

[mbc]

If that were true, they wouldn't get many beans pollinated

Honey bees vista quite a few plants without available nectar, only pollen (or propolis).

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Back to the OP. Is it just my charmed life on Heat Island, a N/S divide or my naive attitude/lack of experience? But this May seemed pretty normal to me and the bees seem to be going about their business quite happily, getting well mated, building up, laying up stores etc.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

We might have a chance to get on a field of beans. How is the potential for a crop on beans and how is the Honey taste? Is it any nice or would we have to mix it with other Summer Honey? I have never really heard of the "good old Bean Honey"...

So all in all, is it worth going for beans?

Tastes OK but has a tendency to make you fart

 

[Firefly]

Honey bees vista quite a few plants without available nectar, only pollen (or propolis).

There is an old paper here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2049?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

It says bumbles and bees taking nectar from the bottom of the flower may shake the flowers and cause (self-) pollination

And it says bees take nectar from extra-floral nectaries on beans - nectar exuded in places other than flowers - no-one quite knows why, maybe to attract ants. This does nothing for pollination of course

 

[Erichalfbee]

Back to the OP. Is it just my charmed life on Heat Island, a N/S divide or my naive attitude/lack of experience? But this May seemed pretty normal to me and the bees seem to be going about their business quite happily, getting well mated, building up, laying up stores etc.

There is a world outside London even if the weather forecast doesn`t acknowledge it.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

There is a world outside London even if the weather forecast doesn`t acknowledge it.

:Iagree:
In fact we were down in the smoke last weekend and the weather was much like the rest of the country (Sh!te). When we called home on the Saturday the wether back in Wales was, in fact, a lot nicer

 

[bpmurray]

There is a world outside London even if the weather forecast doesn`t acknowledge it.

Too true! It's been so bad that an otherwise healthy hive was completely and utterly empty of honey on Thursday, requiring a good feed of syrup. There was some pollen, but no honey whatsoever. They were also in a foul mood - a combination of hunger and weather, I suspect.

The other hives are doing OK, but no better than that - there's nothing in the supers yet, although they have drawn the comb.

And those 28-30C promised for London next week? We'll be lucky to see 17C.

 

[Luka22]

Tastes OK but has a tendency to make you fart

nice one....

So all in all, its good to go for?

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Too true! It's been so bad that an otherwise healthy hive was completely and utterly empty of honey on Thursday, requiring a good feed of syrup. There was some pollen, but no honey whatsoever. They were also in a foul mood - a combination of hunger and weather, I suspect.

The other hives are doing OK, but no better than that - there's nothing in the supers yet, although they have drawn the comb.

And those 28-30C promised for London next week? We'll be lucky to see 17C.

Yes; Ireland is clearly having an awful spring. It's just not so clear to me that it is so bad in England/Wales, at least not in the southern part. We're above Central England mean temperatures year-to date (albeit May was very slightly below).

 

[YorkshireBees]

What can I say, it's an unusual Spring in my experience but besides some colonies being behind others they are all foraging strong and have between 1 and 6 supers on!

Extraction has been delayed till next weekend as the honey wasn't quite ready last time I checked!

 

[Dishmop]

I notice in my obs hive that although they had a bad start because they decided to leave the hive before Christmas, that those left behind have increased at least fourfold, but on inspection it looks as if there are no stores.Certainly none capped but with the aid of a torch honey is visible in some cells....although they have been munching away at some crystalised stuff left on one of the frames.. So at first sight you could think that they may need feeding......but they are managing very well without it.......

Last three days or so they weather has been on and off..One evening it was 20 odd ° outside but the next evening it was about 10°

 

[maddydog]

Steady build up through spring, osr over in a week at most and theyll have filled a dozen supers or so. The q+ side of colonies I split in April have filled two supers and are looking to swarm. All in all quieter than last year but a long way from having to feed and I doubt we've had more than a couple of 20c+ days (if any). I wonder if the odd spell of warm weather early in the year enjoyed by the south actually does more harm than good when followed by cold weather.