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More advanced beekeeping discussion forum.
 #1872  by Jim Norfolk
 06 Feb 2019, 10:51
Mick you have given us some timely advice for spring inspections. I have to admit I usually just check size of colony, brood status and honey stores on first inspection. I will now make a point of checking pollen stores also and feed a supplement if needed. Good video.
 #1877  by Patrick
 07 Feb 2019, 09:52
I was initially taught by the local bee guru back in the day that around here feeding pollen was unnecessary, partly due to willows being common (it is the historic centre of basket and hurdle making and hundreds of acres were once planted up with willow coppice or withies). Much of that has now been grubbed up as the market declined.

Last springs problematic weather resulted in very poor colony build up initially for most beekeepers and whilst Nosema may have been a factor, I wonder we should reevaluate early pollen availability?

Like Jim, I confess by the time I am opening colonies in ?? late March / April they will probably be bringing in pollen naturally and I take it as a given, but the early damage may have already been done. If “winter” bees are declining, their fat bodies exhausted and new bees are not being raised in sufficient numbers to even replace them, a cold period in March may have been too much for some small undersized clusters in full size hives

I started noting some particularly heavy pollen carrying willows driving around here last spring. I may knock on a couple of doors and ask to take some cuttings to propagate and plant up at the apiary. Obviously it’s necessary to know you are propogating male willows, which would otherwise be impossible to know. Some of their growth may be down to soil moisture but the common goat willow is pretty tolerant of a range of conditions so should be okay. Can’t do any harm.
 #1878  by Jim Norfolk
 07 Feb 2019, 14:15
Patrick, willow also worked well for my bees when I was in West Sussex. There was a large area nearby in old gravel workings and some time in early March fully loaded bees would pour back in to the hive. My problem here is there is no significant willow within miles so as this is my first winter here with bees I find myself searching the local area for potential sources of pollen. There is no OSR either so spring could actually see hungry bees if the weather is poor.
 #1879  by Patrick
 07 Feb 2019, 17:00
A couple of good willow bushes probably knock out the same amount of pollen as an entire meadow (we could probably add that entirely unprovable statement to the bee factoid list), but it’s the timing that’s so useful.

I will send you up some cuttings if I get round to it Jim!
 #1880  by MickBBKA
 08 Feb 2019, 02:04
Interesting reading your comments on Willow but you all seem to have missed my point.
Its not the availability of pollen, its the availability of foraging flights that is the problem as far as I see it in my location and maybe yours. Old folk tales are great but I think we can all agree that the climate is very different now to even just 10 years ago, never mind 20 or 30 years ago when Varroa was not present and the bees were able to increase without the restrictions they have on colony well being. I know very well from my Trout fishing records that May was a beautiful month 25 years ago. It is often a cold, wet, windy prelude to a dismal June these days.

If I can feed a pollen sub in house when the bees need it rather than them having to grab it while they can then that is what I will be doing.

Hopefully we can all get a better understanding of the outcomes with our shared experiences.

Cheers, Mick
 #1881  by Jim Norfolk
 08 Feb 2019, 12:45
Mick I think its both. There are times like Wednesday when the temperature crept up to 8 C and in the sunshine the bees were out in force mostly on cleansing and orientation flights but I saw no pollen coming in, because there is none to collect nearby. I am sure we will have the reverse later on cold days in spring when bees don't go out but there are plenty of good pollen sources. Those of us on the coast have the additional problem of cold onshore winds keeping spring temperatures low. I for one will now be looking closely at pollen during inspections and hoping for mild weather.