Spring flow

[rickyd20]

Being in the suburbs, I believe my spring flow will be from Chestnut and sycamore trees as there are plenty of them around. It seems like they are just about to bloom, I can see the buds, so I expect it to start in the next week or two.
This is my first spring, and I was wondering how long do these trees generally stay in flower for? I was unable to find this info on Google.

 

[pargyle]

Being in the suburbs, I believe my spring flow will be from Chestnut and sycamore trees as there are plenty of them around. It seems like they are just about to bloom, I can see the buds, so I expect it to start in the next week or two.
This is my first spring, and I was wondering how long do these trees generally stay in flower for? I was unable to find this info on Google.

Ones across the road from me seem to be about 2-3 weeks in flower before they go to seed ... honey flavour not too great, apparently, but I haven't noticed.

 

[Itchy]

Laurel about to bloom heree

 

[REDWOOD]

Flow lasts about a week

 

[Erichalfbee]

... honey flavour not too great, apparently, but I haven't noticed.

I get quite a bit of honey from sycamore and it tastes fine.
The bees absolutely pile the nectar in then make swarm preps.

 

[Finman]

.
There is an important factor in spring yield, that bees can store pollen as much as possible. This enables the build up of colonies over bad weathers.

 

[rickyd20]

I never realized the flow was so short. I think 2 of my hives will not be up to enough strength to take full advantage of it.
If I were to combine the two weaker hives, is there any way I can bank the queen from one of them for the duration of the flow?

 

[oliver90owner]

Of course there is. Clearly, your banked queen would need suitable accommodation and sufficient workers/stores/brood wax.. But before you do anything, the actual sizes and reason for weakness (health problem?) needs to be assessed.

 

[rickyd20]

Of course there is. Clearly, your banked queen would need suitable accommodation and sufficient workers/stores/brood wax.. But before you do anything, the actual sizes and reason for weakness (health problem?) needs to be assessed.

Both hives seem to be healthy. Likely they are weak due to them never reaching a critical mass from the previous year. One hive was from a split in July/Aug, and the other had some queen issues the previous year, so were unable to reach full strength going into winter.
I believe they are disease free, and are steadily building up, they just they wont be on time for the flow.

Thanks for the suggestion. Would 1 or 2 frames in a nuc be enough to keep her healthy?

 

[pargyle]

Thanks for the suggestion. Would 1 or 2 frames in a nuc be enough to keep her healthy?

A frame of brood covered in bees, a couple of frames of stores and another frame for them to play with should do it .. I would fill the empty space with Kingspan and give them some 1:1 to start them off.

But .. as RAB says ... you need to be sure you are not seriously weakening an already weak colony .. are you that desperate to harvest from this tree pollen ?

Personally, I would leave them as they are and let them build up on the spring forage and see how they get on ... if they are doing as well as you say then they should be in fine fettle when the season starts properly.

 

[Finman]

If I were to combine the two weaker hives, is there any way I can bank the queen from one of them for the duration of the flow?

That kind of hive is not able to get advantage from spring flow.
No foragers and no bees to handle big yield. If they get 1 kg honey, they eate it when hive starts to grow.

But bigger start is able to build up faster for summer. One way is give a frame of emerging bees from big hive. Big hive means about 2 boxes of bees.

And again, shut the mesh floor.