Mid October ??

Very busy this morning at 10.00am ... light rain but 12 degrees ... all three hives out in force and there were very heavy landings and a mixture of bright orange and grey pollen coming in - goodness knows where they are finding it ! The ivy has just about finished now but perhaps there is still some about as that's bright orange - the grey I think might still be HB but where it is I've no idea ... Lots of bees in the air - Lovely to see it this late in the year though.

Oh ... and that's not a super on top of the hive it's an eke filled with Kingspan with a central circular cavity ready for a feeder if they need it ... the hole in the crown board is covered and the feeder cavity has a circular kingspan insert in it. I do practice what I preach ...

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Yup they're busy


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pargyle said:

Very busy this morning at 10.00am ... light rain but 12 degrees ... all three hives out in force and there were very heavy landings and a mixture of bright orange and grey pollen coming in - goodness knows where they are finding it ! The ivy has just about finished now but perhaps there is still some about as that's bright orange - the grey I think might still be HB but where it is I've no idea ... Lots of bees in the air - Lovely to see it this late in the year though.
Oh ... and that's not a super on top of the hive it's an eke filled with Kingspan with a central circular cavity ready for a feeder if they need it ... the hole in the crown board is covered and the feeder cavity has a circular kingspan insert in it. I do practice what I preach ...

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I was completing an amalgamation yesterday and found the brood frames of the bb to be removed packed to the gunnels with pollen. If there is that much pollen in all my colonies' brood frames (no, I don't routinely go poking in the bb at this time of year) I wonder if the pollen will be used/removed in time to give the queen room to lay, come the spring.

Amari said:

I was completing an amalgamation yesterday and found the brood frames of the bb to be removed packed to the gunnels with pollen. If there is that much pollen in all my colonies' brood frames (no, I don't routinely go poking in the bb at this time of year) I wonder if the pollen will be used/removed in time to give the queen room to lay, come the spring.

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Pollen (Bee bread) is their main source of protein and is consumed fairly rapidly .. I think that you will find that the queen will lay wherever there are empty cells in spring... whether these are where the pollen was or in the empty honey arcs .. if there is any pollen left by spring they will quickly use it up once there is brood in there ... a lot of beekeepers provide pollen patties in the spring to help the colony build up so you are in a fortunate position ... mind you, if I were you I'd get your tin hat on for opening them up yesterday !!

Still warm here and lots of things still in flower(repeating when they have been cut back) also some confused plants in flower early.

I'm gardening in T shirts: normally thermals at this time of year..Bees foraging happily, hives groaning at the edges..

madasafish said:

I'm gardening in T shirts: normally thermals at this time of year..Bees foraging happily, hives groaning at the edges..

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Crumbs ... that must be a real culture shock ... you don't often associate Stoke on Trent with semi-mediterranean !

pargyle said:

Crumbs ... that must be a real culture shock ... you don't often associate Stoke on Trent with semi-mediterranean !

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Or with culture come to think of it

Certainly an odd year mine have been foraging on the dandelions which are in flower for about the third time this year.

jenkinsbrynmair said:

Or with culture come to think of it

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Stoke has been a centre of Art for hundreds of years.. mostly on pottery and china

This type of thread simply reinforces the fact that beekeeping is NOT by dates. Those that still think that way are dinosaur-type keepers of bees.

Didn't see mine yesterday as I was away, but they were extremely busy Friday pm and will be again today, I am sure.

So discount any advice from those that keep bees by numbers (dates) or by single events (the 'first' frost?) because they are really clueless as to how bees operate.

RAB

derekm said:

Stoke has been a centre of Art for hundreds of years.. mostly on pottery and china

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or maybe had would be more appropriate now - Wedgewood, the great pottery icon - made in Indonesia

pargyle said:

Pollen (Bee bread) is their main source of protein and is consumed fairly rapidly .. I think that you will find that the queen will lay wherever there are empty cells in spring... whether these are where the pollen was or in the empty honey arcs .. if there is any pollen left by spring they will quickly use it up once there is brood in there ... a lot of beekeepers provide pollen patties in the spring to help the colony build up so you are in a fortunate position ... mind you, if I were you I'd get your tin hat on for opening them up yesterday !!

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Well yes, 'Be Prepared' is the Boy Scouts motto so I lit the smoker. The bees were as quiet as lambs so smoker not needed!

pargyle said:

Very busy this morning at 10.00am ... light rain but 12 degrees ... all three hives out in force and there were very heavy landings and a mixture of bright orange and grey pollen coming in - goodness knows where they are finding it ! The ivy has just about finished now but perhaps there is still some about as that's bright orange - the grey I think might still be HB but where it is I've no idea ... Lots of bees in the air - Lovely to see it this late in the year though.

Oh ... and that's not a super on top of the hive it's an eke filled with Kingspan with a central circular cavity ready for a feeder if they need it ... the hole in the crown board is covered and the feeder cavity has a circular kingspan insert in it. I do practice what I preach ...

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Same here, bees where busy today brining in a flow and even a few days ago with heavy wind/ rain one hive was still busy. I'm now cursing myself for not adding another drawn frame into that caste I have. Reason being is there was very little room on the last frame. With the weather we've been getting I strongly believe that another frame would have hatched brood by now and more bees to go into winter with.

philipm said:

Certainly an odd year mine have been foraging on the dandelions which are in flower for about the third time this year.

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and mine.

One of my hives is still working as though it is mid summer with masses of pollen from what I believe is mustard and radish and there is a little ivy about. Those not carrying pollen are landing with tails well down suggesting a heavy load of nectar. I have not looked in the BB for a few weeks, but the hive is so heavy I can hardly lift the rear off the stand. I intend to put the filled super below the BB as Jed has suggested, but I need a helping hand to lift the hive.

The other 2 hives are working reasonably well, and are not taking in the syrup as I expected, again the hives are quite heavy.

Once they have emptied the feeder I will leave them alone and plan to feed candy in the new year if necessary.

Next job is to weigh down the hives and secure them in case we get further strong winds.

Mike

A wee question about pollen I've noticed all year under my hives. Why do bees spend all that time and energy collecting pollen and when they get to the hive, let some of it fall through the mesh floor and not go retrieve it again.

As back into bees after a few years and using mess floors for the first time I have been curious of why so much pollen is dropped

MikeT said:

As back into bees after a few years and using mess floors for the first time I have been curious of why so much pollen is dropped

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irishguy said:

A wee question about pollen I've noticed all year under my hives. Why do bees spend all that time and energy collecting pollen and when they get to the hive, let some of it fall through the mesh floor and not go retrieve it again.

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Its probably always been that way ...in hollow trees, with solid floors and now with mesh floors ... I suspect that there has been a whole host of pollen mites that survive on the debris at the bottom of a hive .. there's always a bit of pollen on my inspection boards in the vicinity of the frames they are working - it's one of the ways that I can tell what's happening inside the hive.

I don't know whether bees cleaned up this pollen when they were in hollow trees and on solid floors but obviously with mesh floors it's not so easy for them ... indeed, leaving a bit of pollen in the bottom of a hollow tree might have contributed to the eco-structure of other insects that clean up the bottom of the hive, Bees rarely do much without reason ...?

I have noticed on the large landing boards of my poly hives that they fastidiously clean up every scrap of pollen dropped by the bees landing with full pollen sacs ... indeed they seem to hoover up pollen that I can't see as well ...