Eastern Scotland yesterday........MANY colonies taking in willow pollen, yellow and liberal amounts, also dull orange pollen in abundance, even more than the willow, and that is from gorse, stands of which are very yellow right now and there were so many bees on them you could hear the sound, never mind see the bushes heaving with bees. A few bees coming in with red pollen too, cherry family. Also white pollen which is still most likely to be butterbur, as most of our apiaries have some access to this, and it gives good nectar too. It is near the end of its flowering cycle. Also the first bees with the yellow 'paint' or stripe down the face typical of working brassicas, and in this case its either volunteer of spring OSR or charlock, as there is no proper osr flowering yet and this will be a couple of weeks away.
