gavin

A quick inspection

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by
gavin
, 23-03-2012 at 07:22 PM (8173 Views)
Had another visit yesterday and pulled some frames for the first time as the sun was out and the sheltered site was encouraging lots of flying. There was a Japanese quince just inside the garden which was humming with bees, apparently collecting pollen.







The strong colony on the west end of the row had bees over all frames and brood on four. Some of that brood was drone and a decent sized patch of that was already sealed. There was also nectar in some frames - could be from willow or early fruit. Cherry plum, early plums and, on a wall, peaches are in bloom. Something tells me this one could be a candidate for swarming in April if the build-up continues this early. Went into the two weaker ones (the ones that had been blown off their stands in the December gales) and they had neat broodnests filling a frame or two each with brood right across. Pleased with that too.

Didn't open all seven but the ones I left all had vigorous activity and lots of pollen coming in. The vigour of these colonies alone suggests that all is well inside. Might have looked through these at the weekend, but we're due for cool breezes off the sea so maybe not.

They were still on willow.

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  1. Jon's Avatar
    You need to get Steve Rose to surreptitiously scan the wings. The bee in the first pic looks suspiciously like Carnica to me. Dark, but the bands on the thorax are very wide, although the bee in the 3rd pic seems to have a negative DS as judged by holding a piece of paper up to the screen aligned to the correct points. Scientific or what.
  2. gavin's Avatar
    It does. That bee and others like it are in a series of pictures from that day which didn't make it into the blog. Some of my colonies are a bit mixed but some of the bee(s) in these pictures do look very carnie-like. They aren't necessarily mine as there is another beekeeper a little way S (less than 1 km) and I'm sure his bees are partial to a little Japanese quince too.
  3. Jon's Avatar
    Funny, I have a couple of Japanese quince in my garden and I have never noticed the bees on it. pollen of all colours coming in at the moment so spoiled for choice.
  4. gavin's Avatar
    It was Ethel the gardener in the big hoosie who pointed me to the Japanese quince. It was in a very warm corner of a walled garden so I guess that the bees hardly needed an excuse to go there. There were lots of them though.
  5. HensandBees's Avatar
    Beautiful pictures,....... must plant a J quince . lost one a couple of years back......