Hmm... so at a guess we might be a couple of weeks later with the lime, in Fife. There's some lovely bramble blossom out round here, and I've seen a bit of clover. But still signs of robbing, and nucs still needing fed.
Enjoy your lime!
Hmm... so at a guess we might be a couple of weeks later with the lime, in Fife. There's some lovely bramble blossom out round here, and I've seen a bit of clover. But still signs of robbing, and nucs still needing fed.
Enjoy your lime!
No flow whatsoever, at all our lowland locations from Aberdeenshire down to the Lothians. Plenty pollen but a total nectar dearth. The bees are bringing orange pollen from peas, so that's a sure sign they are desperate. Even Phacelia near Crieff is not yielding at all despite being a week into flowering. Every lime I have looked at still has the flowers in the tiny tight bud stage, would estimate most are two weeks away anyway. The Bell is already into the early days of the main flowering and the guys spotted ONE plant of Ling with open flowers today near Dinnet. In full swing moving bees to the heather now, so bye bye lime......too late again this year. Have to go to the more reliable crop with 50% extra value, and forget the 1 year in 5 crop (lime). Bell is my personal favourite of all UK honeys anyway, the smell alone is wonderful.Originally Posted by Emma
Hmm... so at a guess we might be a couple of weeks later with the lime, in Fife. There's some lovely bramble blossom out round here, and I've seen a bit of clover. But still signs of robbing, and nucs still needing fed.
Enjoy your lime!
Have been looking at the ling in a few places and it will NOT be late this year. I suspect if you do it the old way, up for the 12th Aug, you will have missed the best of it.
ps...this is the fifth week of nectar dearth........colony development for the August flow is now being seriously compromised if no feeding going on.
Last edited by Calluna4u; 09-07-2016 at 04:26 PM.
There is some lime out in the Carse of Gowrie, even saw honey bees (mine!) on them today. Two swarm calls (and successful collections) in the last two days and some of mine were making queen cells too. I reckon this was driven by a mini-flow in the last few days after weeks of dearth. The dearth shut off swarming preparations for a while, the last few days have allowed them again. But yes, time to head for the hills, in my case leaving some at favoured lime spots just in case.
The lime is just out here in Ardnamurchan after fewer than 5 weeks or dearth but, for weather, "west is worst" continues unabated. Our last sunny afternoon was 3 weeks ago and that was on its own.
Queen mating is disastrous ... or non-existent a better description. Queens have generally stopped laying except in the colonies in Strontian which have their generous Spring crops on board.
Maybe time to take a package holiday (no imports intended!)!
Found a bunch of wasps eating into one of my Maisemore nucs this time
Looks like they are switching from beneficial to being a menace
Time to destroy the nests ?
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Was at Dinnet today checking a few things out, including a bee site that has been bulldozed by a contractor and all our pallets etc destroyed....they were only placed there four days ago....
Anyway, that's not the significant news. The bees were working in the rain today, and going hell for leather in breaks, and there was a smell of bell heather in the two apiaries we called in at. Now while this does not mean we have any significant honey, it DOES mean that fears of imminent starvation among the bees up to the bell already are over and it will boot the queens into a fresh bout of laying. On the low ground there is still zero nectar but good pollen coming in. Hope to have 80% of our good bell locations filled by next weekend, and the forecast is not bad from Friday onwards.
Yes - our hives have been very busy over the past couple of days between the showers as well as in the rain. Its been humid at times and there is a mass of small wild flowers around as well as wild roses, poppies, some bell heather and lots of clover . The cotoneasters in the garden are being worked on and yesterday evening they were still going strong at 7pm which is unusual as they usually put them selves to bed before 6pm and its just the bumbles working late.
Is nectar flow dependant on the temperature? I don't know how to tell whether they are getting any nectar.
View returning bees. If laden with nectar they will be tail heavy , coming in to land like a 747...
Edit: but with less noise and pollution...
Don't know what it says about the rest of the summer as they CAN change their minds and raise a fresh batch, but in Glengairn today several of the black bee colonies had all the drones out, dead carpet on the grass. Others were on guard denying drones entry and dragging them off by the wings. Its not at all unusual though, for the blacker bees on the moors to evict their drones in July, but this is pretty early.
Must be the lack of weather the BBC are predicting this week ...
BBC_Weather_-_St_Andrews.jpg
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