our bees like brambles according to CEH

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Just had my specie results from my sample last summer (2022) frommy same sampling site.
My top visited plant was Forgetmenot at 57%, Prunus Cherry was next at 8%, illex 7.55, Green Alkanet 7%.
Bramble only accounted for 3% .

Species scientific nameCommon name
MyosotisForget-Me-Not
PrunusCherry
Ilex
Pentaglottis
Vicia
Brassica
RubusBramble
Ceanothus
MagnoliopsidaDicotyledons
Fraxinus
EuphorbiaSpurge
Zanthoxylum
Wisteria
TaraxacumDandelion
AcerMaple
Eucalyptus
AlliumOnion
Quercus


1694188455718.png
 
Just had my specie results from my sample last summer (2022) frommy same sampling site.
My top visited plant was Forgetmenot at 57%, Prunus Cherry was next at 8%, illex 7.55, Green Alkanet 7%.
Bramble only accounted for 3% .

Species scientific nameCommon name
MyosotisForget-Me-Not
PrunusCherry
Ilex
Pentaglottis
Vicia
Brassica
RubusBramble
Ceanothus
MagnoliopsidaDicotyledons
Fraxinus
EuphorbiaSpurge
Zanthoxylum
Wisteria
TaraxacumDandelion
AcerMaple
Eucalyptus
AlliumOnion
Quercus


View attachment 37574
We just had our spring 2022 results back and it was 55% Forget me not.
 
Only a couple of years prior, we hit <50 taxa including a very wide range of wildflowers in our honey, sampled in the first week of July.

A little less diverse, but not dissimilar the following year.

In each case, the pollen was around 70% bramble and clover (roughly 40-30) with the remaining 30% an eclectic mix..... Last year however (results just in today):

Screenshot_20230908-233002.png
🤔... about 98% bramble!!!! Obviously that is probably mainly due to the specific comb I selected, which must have been filled during a substantial bramble flow, but, given we are surrounded by improved grassland, it is probably also indicative of the impact of the climate on flowering times and yield of wildflowers, which is not great.

Basically monofloral.

It will be interesting to see what this year shows, given there were basically no flows at that time, and my sample is therefore likely to contain a decent amount of spring pollen (hawthorn, OSR, top-fruit) instead. Gratifyingly, it came in at 14.9% water, which I am really pleased with).
 
Check the website. I usually get an email when results are through but I didn’t this year.
Something odd with their email I think, I got 9 emails in quick succession about the species results from one sample (June 22) .....
Simon

1694348910959.png
 

Latest posts

Back
Top