BBKA Forum

I have some Portugese Laurel that's about to flower - not sure if bees like it or not yet. Early bramble is flowering but doesn't give much nectar it seems.

I think you have quite a good advantage Nigel in the timing of forage for your bees. We are well into the June gap now here. Everything flowers way too early and its too windy and cold to gather. All the species you mentioned are well finished and away to seed now. Today is 10c, pouring down and blowing a hoolie from the North.
So answer to the question..... NOTHING

The Hazel/Cob and Alder have had full catkins since the middle of November. Now quite a lot of them are in full flower and every one I can see has catkins that are not far away from flowering. Gets earlier by about a week every year. Our bees are very unlikely to gather any Hazel pollen again this year, so pollen sub it will be come the end of January aiming to boost the bees for the Blackthorn and Cherry Plum February/March.

Pear and gorse aplenty



This one having a crafty warm up

Cherry, plum, blackthorn and dandelions all in blossom around us plus pollen from various willows and hazel trees. 3 days of decent weather and the supers are filling with wet nectar.

OSR started flowering just about a week ago. It's about 2.5 km from one apiary and 2 km from another. Not quite on the doorstep and not as close as last year but close enough to be of benefit. The next few days are due to be cooler and I believe that it doesn't yield below 14C, so we'll see if much comes in.

OSR is everywhere and on the rare occasion the east winds of death reduce the bees are ramming home pollen from it. I have only managed a few full inspections given its never been above 12c but the bees are doing great thanks to pollen sub.. Blackthorn, Hazel and Pear are finished. Cherry almost done, OSR, Apple, Willow and Dandelion in full flower but its freezing cold and not forecast to be in double figures for another 10 days here with the winds of death. All my apiaries are surrounded by OSR but I have not had any crop from it in the last 5 years as its been so cold and looking back on my records this year looks exactly the same. Fingers crossed the bees have made a fantastic recovery over the last few years in June and July.

Hawthorn finished about 2 weeks ago, Elderberry almost finished now but all of a sudden the Bramble has just burst into flower everywhere. I seem to think its very early and the flowers are almost all pink/purple rather than white which is odd.

A lime tree in the garden is now flowering - buzzing yesterday evening.
And privet is about to start. There's a km or so of privet hedgerow near my main apiary which has been busy with bees in the past couple of years. This year is looking promising too.

Brief spells of warmth and the bees look to be bringing in pollen from the Ivy. Its about 50% flowered now. Winter checks look like they haven't brought any nectar at all in from the Ivy as everything is sealed. All of the late stuff like RBWH and HB was finished by the end of Aug this year so we have had a September gap but at least the Ivy has flowered early enough again for the bees to get a little bit of pollen from it,