What next - Tilia lime ?

[greengumbo]

I've got the "moving my hives around" bug this year. They are now on OSR that only started flowering last week. At least I think it is OSR. Looked a bit thinner and weedier than the ususal stuff is late OSR different like this ?

So basically fill in the gap !

Early OSR, Late OSR, ? , Heather

I have found records of lime trees in my locale but will have to visit to find out if I have missed flowering. Question is how many hives per tree is normal ? They dont tend to grow or be planted in stands up here....its usually one or two in country house grounds. If I plonked a hive below a single flowering lime then all things being well could I expect a yield ?

[gavin]

That weedy OSR is spring (ie spring sown) OSR. Not so much of it around these days but it gives the bees a useful boost, even a honey crop sometimes. It is usually in flower for just 2 weeks (per field) in the second half of June or July. It also tends to mean you get faster crystalising heather honey :-)

Not so much how many hives per lime tree (you optimist!) but more how many trees per hive. A line of lime trees (they're usually in lines) should support a few hives. I have four apiaries deliberately near lime but Murray told me I should head for the bell heather instead. It is a very fickle honey producer but delicious, right up there with heather as one of the best. Here the first buds are about to pop. We've had sunny weather and a decent downpour. Now all we need is strong hives plus sticky humid weather ....

[gavin]

Don't forget clover. It is the biggie in late June and July. There has been a flow at a few of my apiaries recently and I reckon it is clover. Old pasture is best, sown fields and landscaped areas can yield too. However it needs warm weather and so the clover tap may be about to be turned off for a while.

[chris]

The problem with lime is that it has a fairly short flowering time, and if the climatic conditions are not right all the time, then you don't get much. It needs its roots near water, and hot, sunny weather. I've seen huuge lime trees in the middle of nowhere with a hive underneath. The guy who used to own where I am now grafted a second lime species onto the one planted and it has almost doubled the flowering time.
If you are going to have some hot weather without heavy rainfall, then I'd put a hive. Even just a few frames are well worth it.

[greengumbo]

Don't forget clover. It is the biggie in late June and July. There has been a flow at a few of my apiaries recently and I reckon it is clover. Old pasture is best, sown fields and landscaped areas can yield too. However it needs warm weather and so the clover tap may be about to be turned off for a while.

Doh !

Yes of course. Clover. I'm an idiot.

Well there is plenty of that about at the moment in old pastures near some hives.

I'll go investigate the lime tree record and see if it is one or more trees

Not much bell heather near me but plenty patches of ling.

[lindsay s]

I've got the "moving my hives around" bug this year.

The first time I moved hives about 20 miles on a warm summer’s night it was a near disaster. I had been used to moving hives short distances without any ventilation and up until then it had always been ok. On the night in question me and my partner set out to move two strong colonies out to her family’s farm. Before we set off I thought a bit of mesh over the feed holes in the crown board would offer sufficient ventilation. The rest of each hive was covered in that much parcel tape that they looked like Egyptian mummies. After half an hour’s drive we arrived with the hives and placed them on their new site before releasing the bees. Once the tape was removed from their entrance’s hundreds and hundreds of dead and dying bees were pushed out by the colonies. Lack of ventilation lead to colony stress and overheating, luckily the queens survived and we even got a good crop of honey that summer. Lessons have been learned and hives are now moved as per photos.

Don't forget clover. It is the biggie in late June and July. There has been a flow at a few of my apiaries recently and I reckon it is clover. Old pasture is best, sown fields and landscaped areas can yield too.

Your right about the clover Gavin, as I’ve said before it’s our main crop up here. The photos were taken on Thursday night just before I moved two hives 10 miles to a good area for the clover about three weeks later than normal. It’s a gamble that might just save the season.

[greengumbo]

Visited my hives on late OSR and its only just finishing

Managed to speak to my local farmer and he has a pasture full of clover so moving them down there tonight. Come on sunshine !

Of note the clover fields are surrounded by field of broadbeans or field beans. They are still in flower - do they yield honey ? You are the field bean expert gav

[fatshark]

I've had honey from field beans but others say they don't always yield. Actually I think my first ever honey was from field beans … the hives were slap bang next to a big field of the stuff and the rape had finished, so at least that's what I've always assumed it was.

Is OSR finishing this late usual up where you are. I've just checked my records and it was almost all gone here by the 6th of June (I'm not actually that sad that I keep records of when stuff goes over*, but I do have a dated photo of something else with a couple of yellow flowers in a sea of OSR seed pods). I guess yours is spring sown and mine autumn sown (the norm around here).

* with apologies to those who do

[greengumbo]

I've had honey from field beans but others say they don't always yield. Actually I think my first ever honey was from field beans … the hives were slap bang next to a big field of the stuff and the rape had finished, so at least that's what I've always assumed it was.

Is OSR finishing this late usual up where you are. I've just checked my records and it was almost all gone here by the 6th of June (I'm not actually that sad that I keep records of when stuff goes over*, but I do have a dated photo of something else with a couple of yellow flowers in a sea of OSR seed pods). I guess yours is spring sown and mine autumn sown (the norm around here).

* with apologies to those who do

I would say this is the only ever field I have found of late spring sown OSR. The winter sown stuff finished about 2/3 weeks back at the latest

95% of OSR is winter sown up here I think.

Just spotted blight on my potatoes.....bah !!

[fatshark]

Ignore the spuds … lousy source of nectar