BBKA Forum

My camillia is flowering in the front garden. I believe bees like the flowers but I've not seen any on it yet.

Spring has finally arrived in North Yorkshire.
Daffs are blooming plums and damsons all have blossom and our bird cherry tree blossomed today.

There is lots of OSR out now. not much coming in to the colonies though so I suspect that it isn't yielding nectar just yet.

NigelP wrote: ↑

08 Apr 2020, 13:31

Spring has finally arrived in North Yorkshire.
Daffs are blooming plums and damsons all have blossom and our bird cherry tree blossomed today.

Ha..! Do you have colour Tv up that way yet ?
Daffs well dead here, blackthorn finished ages ago, cherry plums / prunis finished ages ago, apple, pear, cherry, dandelion all in full flower, hawthorn just opening. 7C today and 0C forecast. Warm winter has made everything flower early, bees stuck in doors with freezing North and Easterly winds. All my garlic leaves have gone brown with wind burn. Bees clustered down and I am feeding syrup to keep them going for now. Its gonna be a sh!t year here. Friend of mine has lost 16 colonies. Its been awful. Looking back at my fishing records over 38 years its been the coldest, wettest late winter / spring ever here. My Farmer is feeding beets now to the sheep which he would normally feed in January and still hasn't put the beef cattle out to graze as the grass is so weak. Night time temps in my 8M poly tunnel average 2C even with 2 x 200 litre water butts which act as heat sinks during the day.

I love Teesside me...………...

Nope....just steam radio...

Cherry blossom coming out all over now, the trees were humming with insects.
Also saw my first fields of OSR coming into flower today. Too far away for my bees though.

Our plum tree just finished flowering, sour cherry, apples and pears are now in full bloom.

OSR coming into flower just now. Last couple of days were warm in the sun although still quite cold in the shade with NE winds. At least the bees were able to do some foraging and as usual have gone all out for some pollen now they can, just ramming it in..LOL. Looks like they are making the effort to get to the OSR about a mile away.

Mick, we have cold wind off the sea for the next week or so according to the forecast .

AdamD wrote: ↑

17 Apr 2020, 12:40

Mick, we have cold wind off the sea for the next week or so according to the forecast .

Yeh…...pain in the backside this time of year and just seems to last longer each year now. At least you are 150 miles South of us...LOL
What is amazing is the difference to last year. Nothing flowered in Spring. My records show no Blackthorn on the 12th April 2019, this year everything has been in flower by now. last year everything flowered at the same time and we had an amazing late Spring early Summer until a devastating wet spell in June. Once my bees have expanded enough to store honey I have no idea what will be left for them to forage on, Cherry going over now and not much left after that.. I really think I may need to look at this year as consolidating my colonies rather than looking at a honey crop. last years crop was great. I must not complain over all..