Didn?t see this thread yet.
I?ve had maples and daffodils on bloom for about two weeks now. Looks like the peach and Bradford wont be far behind.
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Oy, you are right! We were all kind of bad at Follow the Bloom last year, so let's all pledge to be better this year! :grin: I'll sticky it.
I've got some kind of pollen coming in, I assume it's maples and/or willows. We don't have any on our property and I haven't been anywhere this past week to check. Some daffodils are budded. My pussie willow stick I planted last year has 3 buds and 1 little fuzzy kitten. :cheesy:
The pear trees busted 2 days ago, my citrus are trying. And Im way behind on swarm prevention due to the weather.
Unusually warm right now waiting for the other shoe to drop and get another cold snap. That said I've been seeing daffodils on south facing slopes of hills, tulip leaves are coming up in my flower bed, clover is turning thick and green with a couple flowers I saw in a customer's yard last week. Today I saw that some of the Bradford pears are opening buds. Not full flowers but only a couple days away from that
Pear trees are blooming here also, Willow trees are buzzing with bees.
Jim Altmiller
Maples are fully open and have been for maybe 2 weeks. Today I was walking the dogs over at WCU and saw honey bees all over some ornamental cherries they planted last year after finishing some new dorms. The tulip magnolias are about to start too.
Bees are making honey, they are all over a yellow vine flower. The willow tree nectar is slowing down.
Jim Altmiller
QuoteBees are making honey, they are all over a yellow vine flower. The willow tree nectar is slowing down.
Jim Altmiller
So were going to see exactly how bad Carolina Jasmine is for bees. This will be better than a University study.
Actually they might be cats claw because the bees dont visit the Carolina Jasmine that is near any of my yards.
The reason I say this is I actually dont know how to tell the difference between them.
.
I had a white jasmine bush 50 feet from my apiary in Jacksonville with up to 20 hives. It filled the entire area with a sweet smell. The bees never touched it.
Jim Altmiller
Early spring trees are blooming in middle Georgia. Red Maples for 3-4 weeks now. Here is a peach blossom from today.
Peach blossoms on my tree are spent. Dandelions, hyacinths, forsythia are all going
Pear trees are spent.
Cherry is coming in.
Buford and Nellie R Stevens hollies are coming in.
Clover is all in our lawns now.
Lots of Holly and clover around the house here.
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We are expecting a hard freeze tonight, which will probably kill all our blooms! :cry:
Same here. Well, 31 forecasted, so it could go either way, but if I was a betting man. . .
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Then you guys have a chance at scraping by. We are expecting 25F. :sad:
20 F this morning. I think in town a few of the hardier bulbs are blooming, like crocuses and maybe daffadils. Nothing out where I live except maybe red maples on warm days.
Well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The tulip magnolias took a pretty bad hit, but the cherries and pears seem to have come through pretty well.
Yeah. Ours wasn?t bad at all. I mean fire in the wood stove for sure, but I think the trees made it. Another little potential threat on this coming Sunday, then we should be in the clear, however I have spent some chilly mornings in the Turkey woods. That?s still about 3.5 weeks away.
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I'm hoping that my neighbor's hive made it. They had a lot of brood going and now we're getting a cold snap. My understanding is that the cluster will freeze themselves to death in an effort to keep the brood warm.
A short lived cold snap is probably no problem for them.
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They will probably be ok. Let us know.
Phillip
Quote from: Terri Yaki on March 21, 2024, 09:09:29 AM
My understanding is that the cluster will freeze themselves to death in an effort to keep the brood warm.
I think this is a sometimes thing, and it really depends on if the bees have honey close by to replenish their energy, because often they won't abandon brood. But I've also had colonies that couldn't cover all their brood during a cold snap just save what they could and let the rest freeze.
I asked him how they're doing and he said that they're warm in there. It sounds like there are some variables that come into play...like how cold for how long, how healthy is the colony to start with and is the brood small enough for them to cover adequately.
>My understanding is that the cluster will freeze themselves to death in an effort to keep the brood warm.
The problem with a cold snap when there is brood is that they starve because they won't leave the brood to get to food. They don't freeze.
Quote from: Michael Bush on March 21, 2024, 01:09:42 PM
>My understanding is that the cluster will freeze themselves to death in an effort to keep the brood warm.
The problem with a cold snap when there is brood is that they starve because they won't leave the brood to get to food. They don't freeze.
Sheesh, I'd never make it in that job. I'm a dedicated worker but I do have my limits. :cool:
The spicebushes and silverberries are getting going around here.
The early flow mustn't be too good because my bees aren't drawing yet. I weirdly don't seem to have written this down in my records for previous years, but I feel like this is kind of late to not have seen any new comb.
So far no new comb here either Reagan...
My small pear and apples are just blooming. Mature trees are done.
At some point I need to get in them and take a look. They still have the excluders on from last year.
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Dogwoods and apples in bloom here. Also black cherry (not a cherry tree, it's closely related to chokecherry) is going strong
The redbuds are starting here. I saw the first queen bumble bee of the season on the silverberry today.
Blackberry and holly are in full bloom as well as clover.
Jim Altmiller
I saw some redbuds in town. Nothing out in the country yet except henbit.
Black Locust bloom is just finishing up here. White clover has been thick for weeks and blackberry are coming on strong now.
Thanks for your post Caashenb. Blackberries will soon be blooming here too!
Phillip
The wild plums are starting to bloom now. The dutch clover isn't blooming but it's up and I would guess it will bloom soon. No dandelions yet. Fruit trees in town have buds and look like they will bloom on the next warm day.
Privit is blooming now
The dogwoods are open.
A few dandelions yesterday.
I saw these bees on this water lilly on the Caribbean island of Martinique a few days ago. Their buzzing sounded strange... Until I remembered they only speak in French on the island.
QuoteThe early flow mustn't be too good because my bees aren't drawing yet. I weirdly don't seem to have written this down in my records for previous years, but I feel like this is kind of late to not have seen any new comb.
Just my observation. The bees, if in swarm mode dont draw like the bees in preservation mode do. When I see white wax, thats my first sign the bees that I didnt keep up with and were in reproduction mode are ending that cycle, and going into self preservation.
The Blackberry is in full bloom almost over. Spring TiTi, Black TiTi, Buckwheat, Whatever "you" call it is now blooming, quarter way through. galberry is blooming. The chinese tallow looks to be about 2.5 to 3 weeks out. And Im hoping the Palmetto Gods are good to me this year
Quote from: Bill Murray on April 14, 2024, 08:16:08 PM
Just my observation. The bees, if in swarm mode dont draw like the bees in preservation mode do. When I see white wax, thats my first sign the bees that I didnt keep up with and were in reproduction mode are ending that cycle, and going into self preservation.
Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "preservation mode". Do you just mean the opposite of swarming, like just normal colony operations? I have some small colonies that definitely aren't in swarm mode right now, and they aren't drawing either.
Wild plums are in full bloom. My crabapple bloomed yesterday. I took bees to an apple orchard Saturday and it was just starting to bloom.
Mr Bush, I know nothing of crabapples for the consideration of bees. Do apples produce a fair amount of nectar for honey? If so is it a light honey or dark honey?
The bees are always all over the crabapple tree in my yard. They certainly work apples. I have no idea what the honey is like. This is the build up. They will burn it all up raising brood.
vetch is all starting to bloom today.
Saw Low Bush Gallberry in bloom today. High Bush Gallberry has small buds.
Jim Altmiller
The crabapples just opened here too.
I?m seeing High and Low Bush Galleries starting to bloom as well Black Gum (Tupelo) and a week ago I saw palmetto buds were starting. If this is the case all over this area then it will bee a repeat of last year and a very poor honey harvest.
Jim Altmiller
on photo is of a Compacta Holly, a landscape shrub used for foundation planting. I think it makes a nice 8-10 foot small tree form if limbed up. The bees are all over it today, with its little, almost unnoticeable flowers.
The large flower is from a Tulip Poplar tree in my neighborhood, a very tall, straight woodland tree, and one of the major nectar flow sources in Georgia.
American Baskeflower beginning here.
The black cherry is starting here, and I saw open tulip poplars in Cherokee earlier in the week, so ours should be close, if not also open. My poplars are so large I need binoculars to see the flowers. :grin: Hopefully we'll get some nectar coming in soon. I had to give two of my small colonies some extra honey today. Pollen is fine though, I took a pint out of my pollen trap after less than 24 hours! :shocked:
Blackberries are blooming pretty heavily here.
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Quote from: .30WCF on April 27, 2024, 07:33:51 PM
Blackberries are blooming pretty heavily here.
AAHH!! Send them my way! :grin:
And MiracleGro. Apparently they like that stuff. The last two times I?ve fed the stuff I sprouted, the bees came and drank all the blue water.
There are several 5-6 down in the cups, but you can see one here just getting ready to land in a tomato cup stage left.
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Blackgum is in bloom. I can hear the bees a fair distance from the tree.
Jim Altmiller
The black locust is starting now, as is the multiflora rose, so I might be in the clear. We'll see what things look like in the hives next weekend.
This is turning out to be a smashing year for black locust and the blackberries are just starting to open! :grin: Unfortunately it's supposed to rain tomorrow, so we'll see if I manage to get any inspections in or not. :sad:
I noticed a couple day ago that the blackberries(tame) are starting to bloom. Again, like last year they are early. This year they are about 3-4 weeks early. Pretty much everything is early this year.
Here is a picture of two Tupelo/Black Gum trees in full bloom. You can?t see any flowers because they are tiny and all green. From where I took this picture I can still clearly hear the buzz of the bees. It is probably close to 90 feet and if I had better hearing I could probably go out a lot farther.
Jim Altmiller
Blackhaw is blooming here
The blackberries have opened and IT IS ON! Everyone, even the little hives, are drawing now, and I've got several hives with filled supers already. I can't even believe how quickly this turned around on me.
Saw palmetto is almost ready. Tallow is on, but a little kink due to the rain yesterday. I can use a couple kinks/setbacks this year.
Bill, I have learned that Carnola Honey is prone to sugar-fying. I have also learned that Palomino honey will be high in moisture content, and many times will need to be dried before extraction. My question to you; Does Palomino Honey also Sugar-fie easily? (Just curious) I have neither in my area.
Phillip
Bees are starting to work on the Chinese Tallow. Ben, Palmetto blooms with Gallberry and Tupelo. Both of them do not crystallize very much. I have had jars of this honey on the shelf for 5 years and not crystalize.
Bill pulls his honey trying to get purer flower flows so he might know.
Jim Altmiller
I dont know anything about canola. I havnt had a problem with palmetto setting up, normally as a stand alone it is wet, prone to fermentation But not as bad as the cabbage palm. The first boxes that normally overlap the Gallberry, are a good mix but kinda takes the Ill call it "bite" out of the gallberry. Its the cabbage palm that ferments bad due to the yeast thats harbored in the flower bundle (or so im told)
Bill I was mixed up. It was the cabbage palm I was thinking of. I have nine of the three in my area that I am aware of. (canola, cabbage palm, or palomino).
Phillip
So I think, and someone chime in if this is wrong, But the higher the sucrose content the quicker the honey will set.
Quote from: Bill Murray on May 12, 2024, 12:10:20 PM
So I think, and someone chime in if this is wrong, But the higher the sucrose content the quicker the honey will set.
Glucose, not sucrose.
Thank you, that file drawer on what ___cose it was needed some oil.
:cheesy:
I don't know what produces what for pollen just yet but the stuff this girl is carrying must be low density stuff, given how full her pollen baskets are. It's hard for me to get pictures because they move a bit faster than I do and I hope you can even see it. Some of them are coming it more loaded down than that and they're not having any trouble landing right at the door. With some pollens, they miss the porch and have to rest up on the grass or on the concrete for a while before they finish the trip.
That's nothin'. I've seen pollen baskets twice that full! :grin:
Yeah, those aren't the fullest ones they're bringing in but that is the picture I got. It's funny to watch them wobble down the plank with those things stuffed full.
Mimosa blooming here now.
The bees are buzzing on the Chinese Tallow.
Jim Altmiller
Honeysuckle and Golden Alexanders
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Hawthorne and the last of the apple blossom.
I don't know what it is but the color is orange and there must be plenty of it because that's about 90% of what's coming in. That pale yellow is on the way out. I'm guessing that it's denser too because their baskets aren't as full of it as they were the pale yellow. I have a yuuuuuge tulip poplar that looks to be flowering and I've heard all about how it's great for the bees but other than that, I don't know anything about what they get from it. I believe that the state park behind my house is full of those, and oak trees.
Tulip poplar is all bloomed out. What do they get from that? What color is the pollen that comes off of it?
I found this and I am seeing a boatload of orange coming in and figure it's tulip poplar.
Quote from: Terri Yaki on May 18, 2024, 03:28:13 PM
Tulip poplar is all bloomed out. What do they get from that? What color is the pollen that comes off of it?
I think tulip poplar produces both nectar and pollen, and I think the pollen is a pretty light in color. Our tulip poplars are starting to drop flowers now, so I'm assuming they are on the way out.
Pecan trees are loaded in blooms in my area!
Pecan trees here also and the soybean crop has started to bloom today so I have about 5 to 6 week of that to look forward to.
The magnolias just opened and WCU has a lot of boxwood blooming, although I'm not sure if honeys are into that or not.
Magnolias make pretty blooms..
How long does the tulip poplar bloom and when do they produce nectar?
Bees are still buzzing on the Chinese Tallow.
The commercial beekeepers around me have pulled their suppers off the hives. That means they think the gallberry and palmetto are done. This is the second year that our flow has ended a month early.
Jim Altmiller
Quote from: Terri Yaki on May 25, 2024, 08:27:17 PM
How long does the tulip poplar bloom and when do they produce nectar?
I'm not sure about how long they bloom. The poplars are my property are so big and in the forest that all the flowers are up in the canopies. I need to get out binoculars and keep a better eye on their timing in the spring. Ours are done now, all the spent flowers are dropping.
I just did some investigating with the fallen tulip poplar flowers in my apiary and from my trees at least the pollen is not orange. It's very light, I'd call it cream colored, maybe a very light yellow.
Quote from: BeeMaster2 on May 26, 2024, 08:50:48 AM
Bees are still buzzing on the Chinese Tallow.
The commercial beekeepers around me have pulled their suppers off the hives. That means they think the gallberry and palmetto are done. This is the second year that our flow has ended a month early.
Jim Altmiller
Wow!
Sumac blooming here.
The commercial beekeepers pulled their hives from the field and have them staged on a friends property, getting ready to move them onto flatbed trailers.
Chinese Tallow is still buzzing. I don?t think they know about the tallow because it isn?t in the national forest.
Jim Altmiller
The basswood has EXPLODED! It's going to be one of those years where the trees have more flowers than leaves. The branches are being weighed down they are so loaded with blooms.
Texas Lilac (Negunda Vitex) is blooming. Bees love it!
They are easy to propagate; may do that for next year to plant some in the bee yard.
My little sourwoods haven?t opened yet, but are budding out. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240606/cf8cad258fc374cf2cefffed2ffcfe76.jpg)
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Our sourwood trees have just put out their flower stalks. The elderberries are blooming, and I saw a couple of chestnuts too. I'm getting highly suspicious that it's the chestnuts that supply that very dark honey I sometimes get in June.
The sweet clover started blooming three or four days ago.
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EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! :cool:
Birdsfoot trefoil is blooming as is the chicory.
SOURWOOD!!
The Chicory is in full bloom. The roadsides are blue in the mornings. Alfalfa is blooming. Red clover (no much for the honey bees, but the bumbles love it). American Chestnut. Wild Cucumber. Ironweed. Joe Pye Weed. Milkweed. Some native thistles have been blooming for a while.
Monkey Grass is blooming! :cheesy:
The sourwood is all done. The bees have moved on to the clover, catnip, and other random flowers in the yard. And they want to clean my stickies again.
The goldenrod is on the verge of blooming.
I didn?t want to walk into the weeds, so it?s kinda grainy, zoomed in pic.
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Yall get it early compared to my Zone 7 location.
Mr Bush, 30, what growing zone are y?all located in?
According to this, 8A, but I dont miss 7B by much.
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Thanks 30
Always wondered what your zones were. Are those temperatures related to minimum averages for winter?
I'm 5b.For a year, back when global warming was taking place, they bumped us to 6. By the next year, when global warming didn't happen, we went back to 5b.
This year has been a bit different, here at the end of July going into August the last two weeks have cooled off enough with plenty of rain. So here we are with Dandilion, Persian clover, blackeye susans and other wild flowers blooming again. I have not seen that here for many years usually now we are dry with nothing blooming worth mentioning. I was also looking at the goldenrod this morning and it is much further along than usual so it will probably bloom a bit earlier than usual.
I posted a really bad pic of goldenrod a few days ago, but it?s starting to pop, and I see more while driving now. It?s not full on fall flow, but we have had a lot of rain the last 3 weeks or so.
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yeah I saw it, here goldenrod is in it fullest begining late September or early October but this year everything has been a little early.
Stopped in the road on the way to food lion and snapped a couple pics out the window.
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My goldenrod has just opened.
I?m not sure what this is, but it?s in all the pastures.
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Need a closeup.
It looks to me like it is a variety of Golden Rod.
I'm still oblivious on what's in and what they're bringing in but today they've started bringing in some pure white pollen.
A question for you bloom followers:
We have five Hibiscus plants on our back deck. Each of these produce anywhere from 3 to 6 blooms per day on average. Though I have never seen a honeybee on these plants, I regularly see hummingbirds visiting. These little birds come in, go bloom to bloom, and leave . How long does it take for these blooms to fully recharge with enough nectar to satisfy the appetite of these little hummingbirds?
Examples: two minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes other🤷🏻♂️
I don't know about hibiscus specifically, but the answer is likely, as per usual, "it depends". In many species of plants nectar concentration, volume, and speed of replenishment are variable based on rainfall, soil conditions, and even what pollinators or pests the plant is currently interacting with. Hummingbirds have one of the highest metabolic rates of any animal and need to ingest up to 3 times their body weight daily, meaning they are often only hours away from starvation. Without their bodies going into a torpid state overnight, they wouldn't be able to make it until morning without eating. So hummers' appetites are basically never satisfied. :grin:
I remember when I used to be able to eat like that and not worry about it. :cool:
Most of the fall flowers are in bloom in my area now. We've got goldenrod, white asters, and native, domestic, and Mexican sunflowers. Not too much nectar coming in though.
How can you tell when nectar is or isn't coming in? I got pollen down pat. :cheesy:
Well I opened a few hives today, and the bees have very little new uncapped nectar, and they aren't drawing wax. Plus they are generally irritated.
Oh, I thought maybe you could see what they were carrying or something.
I am not seeing any goldenrod around but I suspect it's out there in fields that are out of sight as the swarm hive is bringing in bright yellow pollen hot and heavy this morning. I'm intrigued at how the other two hives aren't so into it. One is bringing in some and the other, none at all.
Goldenrod is blooming here. A lot of it is in full bloom.
I thought we had an early bloom and it was over, but round 2 of goldenrod has hit with vengeance.
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The rain from Hurricane Helene has created a big flush of late blooming asters, and my colonies are all bringing in nectar. It's not a ton, but enough that the bees are able to backfill their empty brood comb, which is convenient. I hope the same has happened in the areas affected seriously by hurricane damage.
We had a cold snap and now it's warm again, and several plants are confused as a result and are trying to bloom.
Our Azaleas are sprouting a few blooms.