For those of you in the North (or South) what are your girls finding for food as this point?
Here the Goldenrod is done, the Asters are still going but there's really not much anything for food. My bees are working the Dahlias, Obedient Plant, and still some Cosmos.
We're having a nice warm week in the 70s, but there just isn't any food.
I started feeding this week.
Here in North Georgia, we got a little rain and everything bloomed out. I have the stinkingest hives around now with goldenrod in full bloom. Lots of yellow and purple on the sides of the road.
the goldenrod is in full bloom and like allen said stinks up the beeyards,thats a good thing.the alligator grass is in full bloom too.the bees love it.they are working the blood weed pollen too. ........schawee
Last week they were still bringing in bright orange pollen--perhaps the final dregs of goldenrod. This week I see a pale gray/white pollen. About the only flowers I see still blooming are the fall ornamentals around houses.
Mine are still gathering some pollen from our purple mallows in the garden, its really all that's been blooming around here for a week now. Our cosmos have been done for over a week, gotta love that BIG LAKE effect Picobrew.
There are still a few patches of asters here and there but my bees are ignoring them over the open feed I've been providing. Without supplemental feed they'd likely consume their stores (especially during this warm spell) before winter kicks in and be dead by Spring.
As we all know but often forget, bees are from the tropics and would very likely choose somewhere else to live if it wasn't for human intervention.
thomas
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Here yield stopped 2,5 months ago.
ivy, and Gorse,. We have gorse even with snow and hard frost. We have moorland, woodland and suburbia together so it has to include whatever someone has still flowering in their gardens. We have lost 10C in daytime time temp in two days
Derekm, when I look at the avg monthly high temps in London, it looks like your bees might be flying on many days in the winter if you get any sunshine. What do you think? I'm just guessing based on the avg high, I don't know your climate. That might make for a challenging winter situation if there isn't any nectar and the bees are still somewhat active.
No Goldenrod here in western Montana. Only source available that I know of is alfalfa. I move several weak hives to a flowering alfalfa field each year but it got nailed a frost 10 days ago.
No killing frost here yet, but goldenrod is over with some aster going now.
In town they have a variety of ornamental, not sure what they are bringing in. Pollen ranges from bright orange to pale yellow and gray. I see a lot of Spanish needle on the way to my farm but it peters out about 2 miles from the farm. I did not move them to the farm due to the distance. There is not much out there if the Spanish needle is not available. If it has grown closer to the farm I will move the bees.
Jim
Quote from: BlueBee on October 07, 2011, 03:56:16 AM
Derekm, when I look at the avg monthly high temps in London, it looks like your bees might be flying on many days in the winter if you get any sunshine. What do you think? I'm just guessing based on the avg high, I don't know your climate. That might make for a challenging winter situation if there isn't any nectar and the bees are still somewhat active.
temperatures are significantly higher in the city. 3C at times... I live in some low hills 50miles to the west. Bees have lived in the UK since the last ice age, so somewhere in those genes they know how to do this. They know how to deal with weather rather than constant climate, Just as they know how to live in really warm tree hollows. this week we had a 10C temp drop. This week end it will pop up again by 5c.
We can have -15C or tee shirts in january... its weather here, heat wave or snow in April.