Local Foraging

[Rob55]

Hi guys

Rookie here so go easy. I am looking into getting my first hive and am unsure how good or bad my locality is for bee foraging. Can you advise on how to assess what is on offer for the bees locally?

I live in the middle of a golf course (quite literally) with some houses approx 1km away, and arable farmland in a 1-2km radius. The farmland is predominantly barley/wheat crops, with some potato fields and the very odd oilseed rape field but not every year. We also have fields of willow crop for biomass nearby - I assume these are heaving with catkins are certain times of the year.

Within close distance to my hive site (less than 500m), there is a lot of gorse/whin bushes with the yellow flowers, plus numerous willow trees, hawthorne hedges, brambles. Of course there are daisies and buttercups in spring, and we have 2 cracking cherry blossom trees which explode into bloom in April. We do not keep many potted plants but there is the usual few pots here and there around the house.

Any idea how I relate this to foraging potential to guesstimate how much is on offer for the bees?

Rob

 

[Erichalfbee]

It certainly sounds as if you have forage roundabout.
Hawthorne is useful in spring though it doesn't always produce a lot of nectar. Last year here it was exceptional, the year before zilch.
Willow is where a lot of early spring pollen comes from and certainly for me my honey crop is down to bramble and rosebay.
Have you got ivy? It's very useful for overwinter stocks for the bees (though some might disagree)
They say the best way to see if bees do well in any place is to put a colony there.

 

[Poly Hive]

The only reliable test for keeping bees on a site is to try it for five years as per Manley.

5 years gives an average weather wise.

PH

 

[For want of a better word]

What an ideal situation for some guerilla planting !

Swathes of borrage around the green concrete....golden rod beside the tees... you may even be able to get the golfers involved by getting wildflower meadow flowers seeded into the rough!

Good Luck !

 

[biglongdarren]

will borage grow in all soil types? if there was a big patch of grass would all the grass have to be away first before it grows?

 

[BBG]

And there are some other choices too.

Give these a ring, they will supply borage by the Kg or 1/2Kg and loads of other delights that your bees will probably ignore.

http://tinyurl.com/856t9md

 

[gavin]

Sounds like a reasonable site to me. The daisies and buttercups will not attract the bees, but these will probably be dandelions and clover instead.

 

[For want of a better word]

Sounds like a reasonable site to me. The daisies and buttercups will not attract the bees, but these will probably be dandelions and clover instead.

and the odd Shamrock?

 

[countryman]

and go to the bee freindley flower site to dont know the web address but someone on here will

 

[YorkshireBees]

The only reliable test for keeping bees on a site is to try it for five years as per Manley.

5 years gives an average weather wise.

PH

Try it and see, you will be surprised what forage the bees find!

 

[johncorne]

There are grants available for planting to attrack bees (I believe its aimed at bumbles) - maybe the golf course owner could apply

Jc

 

[BBG]

There are grants available for planting to attrack bees (I believe its aimed at bumbles) - maybe the golf course owner could apply

Jc

Grants! Give them to farmers to plant the 2-metre strip.
Local Associations apply for them and get them to 'study' bees. In some cases it is £12 - £30K.

To what aim? We see no benefit being put forward, only an eye on where the next grant is going to come from. Oh, and ask for the reports - that sets a black ball rolling!

We buy seed, allegedly of interest to bees from http://tinyurl.com/856t9md and have dug up patches to plant them.

At other times wait until the council has dug up a roadside patch and arrive at night to spread a little happiness and disquiet among the residents.

We're waiting to see the results of this

 

[Rob55]

Grants! Give them to farmers to plant the 2-metre strip.
Local Associations apply for them and get them to 'study' bees. In some cases it is £12 - £30K.

To what aim? We see no benefit being put forward, only an eye on where the next grant is going to come from. Oh, and ask for the reports - that sets a black ball rolling!

We buy seed, allegedly of interest to bees from and have dug up patches to plant them.

At other times wait until the council has dug up a roadside patch and arrive at night to spread a little happiness and disquiet among the residents.

We're waiting to see the results of this

That is interesting, we own the golf course as it happens, it is our business, so I must look and see if any such grants are actually available, as we do have some areas where planting would be no problem at all.