Forage , what's flowering in your area?

[MickBBKA]

These are the Hazel flowers on Nov 16th, they are still not open yet but this years leaves haven't even all fallen yet. A couple of dry warm days like today and they will break open. A couple of frosts and they will go brown and die. Either way the bees are unlikely to gather much pollen from them. Hazel appears to be advancing by about a week a year since I started keeping bees in 2012. The Alder is looking the same too. Its another reason why pollen subs is so important to a successful season for me.

[MickBBKA]

Despite the torrential rain over the last 3 days the Hazel has burst into flower, the bees are gulping fondant down taking a Kilo/week at the moment. This is danger time. Its too warm so the bees are brooding but its 40mph winds and rain so they can't fly to gather pollen from the Hazel that will be gone in a couple of weeks. I will have to feed pollen subs soon then the big danger will be the snow end of February or in March that will come. The seasons are finished, you just have to make it up as you go.

[NigelP]

Mick, if they have no pollen they stop brood rearing. Even in summer.....we had a bad August on the moors a few years back when bees couldn't fly and they all stopped brood rearing due to lack of pollen.

[AdamD]

I have seen brood-rearing stop in spring when the weather has been to poor. Colonies seem to bounce back though as soon as the weather improves so it has not worried me too much.

[MickBBKA]

Mick, if they have no pollen they stop brood rearing. Even in summer.....we had a bad August on the moors a few years back when bees couldn't fly and they all stopped brood rearing due to lack of pollen.

That's the point Nigel. Raising brood over winter depletes the colony of pollen. Come spring the Hazel and Alder is gone and usually the east winds of death stop them collecting Blackthorn, Dandelion and Willow. Lack of pollen is so overlooked as all you are taught is to feed syrup and fondant in autumn. So I sub them to get them up to strength for the 4 to 6 week period May to June when they can forage effectively, otherwise they use that period to build up the colony size consuming all the income just to build colony numbers. All I hear from lots of beekeepers in this area is that they have not gotten any honey this year. In the 6 week foraging period I recovered just short of 3,000lb from 18 colonies in 2023 which was poor/colony compared to 2022. That's because the BBKA led local association presentations about feeding pretty much just talk about winter prep and don't really cover pre spring feeding. As you say, its a numbers game. To make it work here you have to make sure you have the numbers when the weather window opens and be ruthless in swarm prevention from last week in April until mid June. Understanding our local flora and weather patterns and timings is an art that needs teaching.

The Hazel flowers all started turning brown this last few days, they are done and its only New Years day.

[RJC]

worth a read on this wet dreary day (if you haven't already)?- Fast bees; skinny bees - Honey bee nutrition manual (from down under)

https://www.agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/05-054.pdf

[NigelP]

Mick, I understand where you are coming from with raising brood levels early on. Fortunately we have a season that usually starts in late April and finishes end of Sept, so we get 5 months of foraging (in a decent year). Last year July was the pants and nil foraging due to rain at 3 apiary sites, was feeding hives to keep them going. My major problem is pollen clogged frames, we have so much of the damn stuff, so usually removing....and was able to feed back pollen frames to needy colonies during the July dearth.

[Spike]

worth a read on this wet dreary day (if you haven't already)?- Fast bees; skinny bees - Honey bee nutrition manual (from down under)

https://www.agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/05-054.pdf

Good info.

[MickBBKA]

Mick, I understand where you are coming from with raising brood levels early on. Fortunately we have a season that usually starts in late April and finishes end of Sept, so we get 5 months of foraging (in a decent year). Last year July was the pants and nil foraging due to rain at 3 apiary sites, was feeding hives to keep them going. My major problem is pollen clogged frames, we have so much of the damn stuff, so usually removing....and was able to feed back pollen frames to needy colonies during the July dearth.

That's a great problem to have Nigel
My season is occasional foraging days March and April, May used to be great but its becoming very cold in the last few years and bees having brood breaks when they should be booming. June is now very wet with strong winds and storms. July very wet. August used to be lovely but again its becoming dreadful and I am now already feeding end of July. September there is nothing left in flower because our season has become so compressed. I now think in weeks rather than months about production. I would love just one decent spring and summer so I can see what they are able to achieve.

[MickBBKA]

Blackthorn has come into flower today, snow drops been in flower for a week. Another week or maybe 2 and I will start pollen sub as these are the plants they should be foraging on but can't.