Big surprise.

[Into the lions den]

We were out today checking round many out apiaries for storm damage...not too bad btw............and despite quite low temps it was sunny and pleasant.

By early afternoon there was considerable bee flight going on and a decent cleansing flight was taking place..............which was when I saw the pollen coming in.

I cannot recall exactly where but in the last week I have had a discussion with someone on the forum regarding the merits or otherwise of hazel. Very close to the bees is a considerable amount of hazel, and yes, the male cathkins have started to open up and bees were working them. The tiny red female flowers were there too but did not see any bees looking at them.

Lifted the top of a couple of hives that were active and carrying pollen thinking they must be on the move inside. No, The clusters were to all appearances as tight as on a freezing winter day, plenty stores, dead quiet, 7 seams or so, and from above no sign of activity.

Maybe normal further south but this is early Jan in E. Scotland..........always something new.

 

[Winker]

I moved south, 12 years ago for a warmer climate. In a few years time, i will be able to move back to the Scottish east coast due to global warming

 

[For want of a better word]

I moved south, 12 years ago for a warmer climate. In a few years time, i will be able to move back to the Scottish east coast due to global warming

Winker... I would not rush..... climate change can swing both ways... I often wonder if the tectonic plates are moving more quickly south?

 

[Winker]

Winker... I would not rush..... climate change can swing both ways... I often wonder if the tectonic plates are moving more quickly south?

quote:

"The earthquake that struck Japan on Friday was so powerful that it actually moved the whole planet by 25cm, experts say."

A few more of them and we will be where Spian should be

 

[JamezF]

I moved south, 12 years ago for a warmer climate. In a few years time, i will be able to move back to the Scottish east coast due to global warming

I'd definitely not bet on that

London is way north of, for example, New York and Boston, and I'm sure most people are familiar from the news and television with how cold it can get there during the winter (in fact, there's hardly any of the UK that is south of Canada). It's entirely possible that whatever effects are responsible for moderating our climate could be stopped by climate change, making it a lot colder in the winter.

We've certainly been going through a very strange period of weather over the last five years or so though. I really don't understand it. I wish there was more interest in it from the media. Last year we had a very warm spring, followed by one of the coldest Junes ever and then several more record-breaking months in terms of how warm or cold it was, but no-one mainstream that I've found appears to be asking if it isn't a bit odd that we had so many extreme weather situations last year and if there's any identifiable cause.

James

 

[Davelin]

My mother blamed the Russians for sending up all those satellites.

 

[bees4u]

We were out today checking round many out apiaries for storm damage...not too bad btw............and despite quite low temps it was sunny and pleasant.

By early afternoon there was considerable bee flight going on and a decent cleansing flight was taking place..............which was when I saw the pollen coming in.

I cannot recall exactly where but in the last week I have had a discussion with someone on the forum regarding the merits or otherwise of hazel. Very close to the bees is a considerable amount of hazel, and yes, the male cathkins have started to open up and bees were working them. The tiny red female flowers were there too but did not see any bees looking at them.

Lifted the top of a couple of hives that were active and carrying pollen thinking they must be on the move inside. No, The clusters were to all appearances as tight as on a freezing winter day, plenty stores, dead quiet, 7 seams or so, and from above no sign of activity.

Maybe normal further south but this is early Jan in E. Scotland..........always something new.

Must be those fine Scotty bees!!!!

 

[Hivemaker.]

El Nino.

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

Or they haven't time adjusted and they think it's still summer, just messing...

 

[Finman]

.
In north Finland we had today -33C

 

[RoofTops]

But I fear early pollen, if it promotes early brood rearing, could be a bad thing - where will the new bees forage when they start flying? Fine if everything is early but we all know the first few months of the years can be the coldest and most hostile to bees.

No good will come of it...harrumph...mumbles into beer glass...exits left, shaking head...

 

[MuswellMetro]

El Nino.

agree

 

[susbees]

But I fear early pollen, if it promotes early brood rearing, could be a bad thing - where will the new bees forage when they start flying? Fine if everything is early but we all know the first few months of the years can be the coldest and most hostile to bees.

No good will come of it...harrumph...mumbles into beer glass...exits left, shaking head...

Off to the pub with RT for a refill....

 

[the naked beekeeper]

Off to the pub with RT for a refill....

Make mine a cider....

 

[wightbees]

Theres also Bumble's flying about here,and the flowers seem to think spring has arrived.
Going to check the hives this weekend.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I cannot recall exactly where but in the last week I have had a discussion with someone on the forum regarding the merits or otherwise of hazel. Very close to the bees is a considerable amount of hazel, and yes, the male catkins have started to open up and bees were working them. The tiny red female flowers were there too but did not see any bees looking at them.

'twas me

There have been long Hazel catkins near us since mid-December, there have been every year since we've lived here, even during the snow and frosts of the last few winters. We think they must be an 'early flowering' variety because others still have quite tightly budded catkins, nowhere near ready to drop pollen.

Interesting to have it confirmed that the bees find the pollen useful.

 

[gavin]

Maybe normal further south but this is early Jan in E. Scotland..........always something new.

It'll be those daft and confused NZ bees still working their summer time (only kidding Murray, I think!).

G.

 

[Skyhook]

I'd definitely not bet on that
We've certainly been going through a very strange period of weather over the last five years or so though. I really don't understand it. I wish there was more interest in it from the media. Last year we had a very warm spring, followed by one of the coldest Junes ever and then several more record-breaking months in terms of how warm or cold it was, but no-one mainstream that I've found appears to be asking if it isn't a bit odd that we had so many extreme weather situations last year and if there's any identifiable cause.

James

One of the likely results of global warming is more extreme weather events- basically, the weather systems just have more energy in them.

The problem is that 5 years is a very short time in climate terms, and it's only with hindsight that we'll be able to say whether global warming was the likely culprit.

.

 

[Into the lions den]

It'll be those daft and confused NZ bees still working their summer time (only kidding Murray, I think!).
G.

lol Gavin. It was actually both types. Kristjan came back in off his round later on and he too had seen the same near the River Earn, but he said he thought it to be alder they were visiting there.

It was not the actual pollen working on its own that was the surprise ( I have probably seen bee flight and some degree of pollen carrying on every day of the calendar year in my time) , it was combined the state of clustering the rest of the hive was in apart from those few out foraging or voiding. Solid winter cluster with hardly a response when you lifted the cover board off. (The first ones I looked at were conventional wooden Langs.) Yet they had bees out carrying pollen.

However, to those who thought it worrying...........the number was tiny....the amount of pollen gathered, possibly in total over the wintering group in question (98 hives) they might have got enough pollen to fill a teacup....and I might be being otimistic even at that........and such a tiny act of pollen gathering is, in itself, really of no practical significance. It is little more than a curiosity and come spring it will have been an event with no impact. It was 6C btw.

 

[Chrisfnvs]

I have seen the same thing Murray, i took a peak at the entrance yesterday i could see the bees in a cluster hanging down, as i looked a bee flow passed my ear and landed carrying a small amount of pollen, then another one etc, but we are down in the sunny south coast ! Chris