Winter maintenance

[gavin]

Hi Gavin,

What kind of a 'taint' is that? Taste, smell, colour?

Kitta

All three. The honey doesn't taste nice and you are best not to eat it anyway as there toxins in it. Studies have suggested that it doesn't make honey dangerous, but I still wouldn't want to eat a jar of it. There is a smell too, but I can't describe it. One colony of mine this summer turned much of their wax bright yellow at the same time as they were bringing in orange pollen. I was pretty sure which patch of waste ground they were heading for - quite near my home there is a disused railway station with lots of ragwort on the gravel areas.

The lady whose land has my heather site goes around pulling ragwort on her farm and I'm grateful for that.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks Susbees, Trog and Gavin.

I did not pull the ragwort last summer thinking the bees like it - but I did not have any honey either, so I remained unaware of the tainting issue.

We usually don't have a lot of ragwort at the croft, and we don't have any grazing animals - but I'll make sure I pull them this summer.

Kitta

[Trog]

As the old gardeners used to say, 'one year's seeding, seven years weeding'. There'll be plenty next year if your bees pollinated it well!

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks Trog - I'll remember that saying and keep a beady eye on the land for ragwort and pull them out immediately.

[susbees]

As the old gardeners used to say, 'one year's seeding, seven years weeding'. There'll be plenty next year if your bees pollinated it well!

And ragwort seeds have up to 40 years dormancy....that's why there's so many on motorway embankments etc. And it's biennial (pretty sure) so just the rosette first year...

[Bridget]

I was brought up on a farm and we spent many hours pulling ragwort. In those days the roads agency or whatever it was around then, were responsible for disposing of ragwort on the verges so you didn't see so much. Now it's rampant and spreading everywhere as I don't think anyone is responsible any more. Don't worry I burn it all,( and wear gloves) as I know the terrible damage it does to cows and horses, especially when it's lying dead after pulling.

[Neonach]

Ragwort is not poisonous in its immature form. Cattle and horses graze on it in its first year without problems, and in its second year simply avoid it because it smells and tastes unpleasant: nature does usually give a warniing. For that reason cattle and horses only very rarely die from eating live ragwort. Here in the Orasay we have ragwort everywhere (due to lack of people to pull it!) with cattle and horses grazing, and no problems.

What is a serious problem is when the ragwort is caught up in hay. The smell and taste are not so obvious but it has maximum concentration of toxins. In the days of low-intensity farming, and especially when every farm had horses and therefore had to make hay to feed them in winter, and when a hay field would be much more natural and varied than it is now, it was essential to pull out the ragwort, usually during May or June of the 2nd year. This ritual became entrenched, and as it was a job given to children would be well remembered by the next generation!

But the fact is that ragwort is not a hazard when it is in the field, because animals have more sense than we do, but is most dangerous when dry and caught up in hay.

Let's not forget that nature has a place and purpose for ragwort just as it does for every other species, including Man!

[Trog]

There's a helpful ragwort website here: http://www.ragwort.org.uk/ which seems to balance the other sites I found - one saying it was no problem at all and the horse sites which say it is! I pull it (on my own ground) at the flowering stage as it's easiest to get out then. The horse grazes round the rosettes but doesn't touch them. If she was hungry or in a 'starvation paddock' she might. If I saw cinnabar caterpillars I'd leave a plant or two but I've not seen them here, only in Hampshire. I cannot agree with the blanket statement that 'animals have more sense than we do', however; simple observation suggests otherwise.

[susbees]

Several good sites on the issue - and one or two biased ones selling tools to dig it up! Ragwort poisoning is cumulative. For life. And the liver damage irreversible. Landowners in England and Wales can be legally ordered to pull the stuff up as an injurious weed.

There is a University of Liverpool video of a horse with ragwort poisoning. Not nice.

If a horse eats little bits in a big field, who's to know? But I agree hay is a greater risk....but providing seeds for the neighbours' fields isn't going to make anyone many friends. I get little ragwort here (mostly pasture) but it's up and out. I keep llamas and sheep and prefer not to risk it.

www.hackonline.org.uk/ragwort.htm