I haven't seen any Rape growing near any of my apiaries this year. I wonder has less been planted due to the seed coating ban.
There was never too much in my area anyway.
Mine collect a bit of nectar from the Dandelion in April and then the main flow seems to be sycamore in the last fortnight if May.
June gap follows then there is another flow in July.
Seems to be the usual amount growing in this area -with about 40 acres, at a guess, yellowing-up just over the hedge of the apiary I had chance to look at on Tuesday. Certainly no noticeably obvious difference in acreage.
Finally went through two hives in the apiary away from my garden this morning. One had 3 frames of brood in patches about hand sized and lots of eggs. A few emerging bees as well. Plenty stores and bright yellow pollen. This is the queen from your Aberdeenshire grafts Gavin ! Brood mostly black and they seem to have inherited AAs very calm demeanor
The second hive was ridiculous. 6 frames brood with another 2 sides of eggs, plenty of young emerged, chock full of bees and lots of wild comb built up around the feeder...also with eggs in. I removed a slab of stores and put an empty frame in as not heaps of room in there. I also saw two fat drones wandering about the frames.
Got me thinking about boosting hives prior to taking them to OSR. Is it more detrimental to the strong hive to remove a brood frame and give it to a weaker one than just leave them be in terms of yield ? I would think 1 very strong hive would be better than 2 medium strengths ?
Both hives are poly langs.
Excellent! Her sisters are spread through Tayside, Fife and Clackmannanshire.
I don't think there is necessarily one way to arrange your production colonies. Ted Hooper (if I remember correctly) says that strong colonies are the thing, even to the extent that uniting weaker ones for the honey flow makes sense. Generally it is my strongest colonies that do well when there is a honey flow. I'd leave them, but that is personal choice.
Saw a few OSR fields today with yellow buds. The next warm day will see them in full flower. In the central Carse of Gowrie there are as many fields as usual.
First inspection of the year yesterday ... mostly looking good. One suspected queenless colony, the rest mostly on 3-4 frames of BIAS. One boiling out of a brood and a half, with loads of brace comb with brood built into the eke around an empty carton of fondant. One very tetchy colony destined for early queen replacement (an obvious mix of some type, much paler than most of my stock). One suspected late season supercedure. Two looking great for queen rearing in terms of temperament. Colonies overwintered in Thorne's Everynucs in particularly good condition with 3+ frames of brood.
Comb changes start shortly ...
Great to work with bees again - I think it was late August since I last inspected a colony.
Went thro the rest of mine yesterday. I am very surprised at how strong they are with stacks of open and sealed brood , stores and an abundance of pollen. Bodes well for this year if we get some decent weather. We counted 29 different sorts of flowers in bloom yesterday with wifey photographing them for our records. She is now a very keen beekeeper now that she has passed her preliminary exam with distinction and has followed on by taking her module 1.
Last edited by GRIZZLY; 11-04-2015 at 12:03 PM.
"My" rape is coming into full flower and will last at best three weeks. My bees are not fit for it which is good given I aim at comb honey.
How long does the rape last in your neck of the woods as I hear it is a lot shorter a flowering time than it was in the 90's when one could near bet on a good 6 to 7 weeks.
PH
From the blog of an American lady bee inspector ... http://www.beverlybees.comOriginally Posted by Jon
This year’s news
15th of March cleaned all the hive floors and had a quick look under the crown boards. All the hives had bees and were given 1 kilo of candy. 6th of April was a cool day but I had a friend up on holiday so the hives were given a quick inspection. All 7 colonies had laying queens and 2 or 3 bars with palm sized patches of brood. The candy was partly used up and except for one nuc all hives had plenty of stores. A few slugs and hundreds of slatero’s (woodlice) had moved into some of the hives over the winter. Last Thursday was a nice warm day and I gave our secretary a hand with her bees, they are slightly ahead of mine and she has a sheltered apiary in the middle of the town. I will be acquiring a nice colony of bees from her in a few weeks’ time. Nice to hear about your Everynucs fatshark I might try one out this winter. It’s cold up here at the moment and we’re not forecast to get warm weather this week. The forage seems to be later this year and it looks like we’ll have a slow spring build up.
Today I'll be laying the foundations for the repossession of my house, car, cat and family by visiting the trade stands at the BBKA Convention. I'm actually at Harper Adams for a meeting but, like a moth to a flame, will spiral into the exhibitors tent and my inevitable financial destruction.
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