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- Mar 4, 2011
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If there's a bramble flow now, it will be the first time I've seen one this late in 17 seasons beekeeping. The best hope of a flow now is on the heather or a localised balsam flow.
Quite. Was talking to quite a few people over the last few days and apart from one or two all are dismal.
We still have bramble in flower up here but it is never a significant yielder here, though our plants are a lot less vigorous and have a lot less flower than in the warmer climes further south. The bees in England get bramble but not here.
Crop currently running at about 15% of expectations, so disastrous, and despite lots of flowers locally nothing is yielding any significant flow. Bramble, White clover, Lime, Balsam, and Bell heather are all in flower. None are yielding. Balsam now well in flower and not seen a single honeybee on it and not even one 'ghost bee' coming home. It syrup tank time when it should have been extracting time. Last year the nectar from the same sources (bar the Bell which failed) was profuse in our English locations though sparse up here.
Bell looks great but not getting the weather right now, and Ling north of the watershed (Grampians) looks very nice, but south of the watershed there has been so much rain that in many areas the flower spikes are rotting and turning brown. Have seen that before, 1985 being a case when it would have been better for the bees not to take them to the moors at all. Having seen the state of the heather we are not occupying some of our areas this year, placing more hives than normal in others.
IF...and there is still a long way to go.....we get this weather carrying on throughout August,,,,,then expect it to be a serious winter for losses. As a general average over the country it is quite predictable....bad summer, especially bad August, followed by elevated loss levels in the coming winter. Queen matings have been poor and sporadic since the end of June, and queens are starting to curtail laying. Some colonies have their drones out already. Not a generally optimistic sign.....
However we only need one week in August to break even for the year and see the queens lay a decent enough supply of eggs for wintering bees, so all is not yet lost, and it is surprising how many years are like this. All doom and gloom and then a harvest comes in off the Ling. The fat lady has a habit of being ready to start singing, then trips and falls on the last step up to the rostrum. Its only infrequently she actually tunes up.