I’m glad your toppled colony is fine, Neils.
I’m glad your toppled colony is fine, Neils.
Tale of two apiaries. few hundred feet of elevation and about a mile between them. Lower apiary is going great guns. now on double brood national and a super apiece. Upper apiary flow now started but only on 5 14x12 frames.
A good illustration that local conditions can vary enormously. I had 5 hives knocked over a couple of years ago, I lost one queen as a result and many of the bees from one hive found their way into another as it had been moved so far.
It's interesting, the 14x12 site is great, landowner is really interested but they just don't do that well there. I'm thinking it's my queen rearing apiary. Other site can easily support a few more hives and they are packing in the nectar at the moment. In theory their range area overlaps, but I've seen colonies on the 14x12 site starve in sight of OSR.
For the past few days I’ve noticed my bees, lots of bumble bees and butterflies foraging on our purpurea willows. It’s the first time I’ve seen that.
I used to think they’re great trees for bushy windbreaks, and the deer don’t eat them, but just a pity the bees don’t like them. Not any more! Did I just not look at the right time previously, or do they take a time to mature and become palatable (like ivy)?
The other willows’ catkins aren’t out yet.
Kitta
possibly swarming eve round these parts. lots of interest in a few boxes of spares that I have in the garden. been building up steadily over the past 3 days.
Kitta we planted lots of willows a few years back. The deer ate them and the bees ignored them. It wasn’t until last year they began to have proper pollen catkins so maybe it does take a while. Too tall for the deer now and the bees are on them but not as much as I had hoped. We have a neighbour with a very mature early willow - about 3 weeks ahead of mine and is more silvery. They absolutely love that one.
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My willows are only 2 feet high and not yet interesting enough for either the bees or the deer. Mine are goat willow Salix caprea I think.
The local bumble bees are hammering the native willows (species unknown) up on the hill behind the house. I've taken some cuttings from these local trees as well ... lots of little 12" sticks which self-root very easily (but need fencing against the deer).
I've also taken half a dozen 8-10 foot branches, driven them into the ground and staked them for support. The bees have already browsed the low level stuff off them, but they cannot reach the growing tips They should root reasonably well. If you find a tree that's been pruned it often sends out relatively straight new shoots which can reach 8 feet quickly. Chop these off and you have a ready-made tree, but it will need staking.
In Fife there's some willow near me that flowers really well but is always too early for the bees.
Great minds thinking alike. We have just planted 500 willow sticks as a hedge round my new apiary. Here is one shooting
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Which willow did you choose, RDMW? And Bridget - does your neighbour know what kind of silvery willow they have? Did you do all your replanting of willow sticks in Ardnamurchan, Fatshark, or Fife?
Kitta
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