What are bees foraging on at present

[MissEmmz 26]

Already blossom trees in flower as well as the wattles, and rhododendrons.... back yard a balmy 21 degrees at 3 30 pm today..... roll on the season!

Edited November 25, 2018 by Trevor Gillbanks
Removed season from title

[kaihoka 2680]

Already blossom trees in flower as well as the wattles, and rhododendrons.... back yard a balmy 21 degrees at 3 30 pm today..... roll on the season!

While you are enjoying your A side warm westerly on the east coast spare a thought for us getting the B side on the west coast .

[HSV_Darren 271]

Five Finger flowering in Lower Hutt ATM

[yesbut 5678]

Five Finger flowering in Lower Hutt ATM

That's pretty amazing, nothing ever flowers in any ATM around here

[tudor 1530]

Tree lucerne, tree fuchsia, pussy willow, forget-me-nots, hebe's and lots of other stuff I don't know about ...

[Philbee 4609]

Sugar Syrup right now

I found a very strong two box hive last week that was empty of stores

It attacked the syrup bucket like a hive possessed

[Jas 389]

The willows are getting greener by the day so it wont be long before the bees can have a feed , weather depending . Was down on the river flats today and saw plenty of flower buds on the Karaka . My hives got hit hard with Karaka poisoning on two sites , so I'm temped to pull them out while the Karaka is flowering .  

 Plenty of what looks like gorse pollen coming in .  

[mischief 117]

Rosemary, thanks to our council planting heaps of them in the town centre, with only a few on my shrubs.

Heaps on the brassicas I sow every year for them.

 

[kaihoka 2680]

2 hours ago, mischief said:

Rosemary, thanks to our council planting heaps of them in the town centre, with only a few on my shrubs.

Heaps on the brassicas I sow every year for them.

 

Do you sow mustard ?

[mischief 117]

Usually, but this year its mostly turnips and black radish.

[kaihoka 2680]

3 hours ago, mischief said:

Usually, but this year its mostly turnips and black radish.

Do you feed the roots to stock ?

[mischief 117]

Nope, I dont have stock and realised that I do not like eating these myself.

I discovered that if I sow them in late summer/autumn, they go straight to seed/flower in winter/ early spring, just in time for hungry honey and bumble bees to be out and about.

Not too sure why I dont have much mustard flowering this year.

Must have sown it in areas that I then went and mulched with woodchip.

[kaihoka 2680]

33 minutes ago, mischief said:

Nope, I dont have stock and realised that I do not like eating these myself.

I discovered that if I sow them in late summer/autumn, they go straight to seed/flower in winter/ early spring, just in time for hungry honey and bumble bees to be out and about.

Not too sure why I dont have much mustard flowering this year.

Must have sown it in areas that I then went and mulched with woodchip.

I have to be careful when I show bee Brasica to avoid them being a host for grey aphid and diamond back moth 

[mischief 117]

I have Fantails to deal with alot of bugs.

I dont worry too much about pesky insects. to me that just means there is an imbalance and lack of predator types.

I have been trying to include beneficial insect plants and leave weeds alone if they arent in the wrong spot.

Grass I pull out on sight if its anywhere outside of the lawn.

[kaihoka 2680]

15 minutes ago, mischief said:

I have Fantails to deal with alot of bugs.

I dont worry too much about pesky insects. to me that just means there is an imbalance and lack of predator types.

I have been trying to include beneficial insect plants and leave weeds alone if they arent in the wrong spot.

Grass I pull out on sight if its anywhere outside of the lawn.

do you ever have frosts?

[Jaspur M 65]

Does any one know much about this plant here? Bees absolutely love it

[yesbut 5678]

Could be Indian Hawthorn. Although ours isn't flowering yet.

[Jaspur M 65]

Iv been told its viburnum, not sure if it produces nectar or pollen

[kaihoka 2680]

1 hour ago, yesbut said:

Could be Indian Hawthorn. Although ours isn't flowering yet.

I tried to buy one a month ago. I had one years ago and I lost it.

But none of the garden centres had heard of it.

I think 20 years ago there was a wider variety of obscure plants .

[Mummzie 505]

1 hour ago, Jaspur M said:

Iv been told its viburnum, not sure if it produces nectar or pollen

I agree that its Viburnum. I've just planted one in our "street beautification" project, along with 2 Hebes and a Grevillia.

 

Google isn't helping much with the pollen or nectar answer, so perhaps a good look at the bees foraging and see if they have full pannier bags....I'm curious too.

[kaihoka 2680]

7 hours ago, Mummzie said:

I agree that its Viburnum. I've just planted one in our "street beautification" project, along with 2 Hebes and a Grevillia.

 

Google isn't helping much with the pollen or nectar answer, so perhaps a good look at the bees foraging and see if they have full pannier bags....I'm curious too.

Which Viburnum is it .

I should plant some , I have read they like clay 

[Sailabee 760]

8 hours ago, kaihoka said:

I tried to buy one a month ago. I had one years ago and I lost it.

But none of the garden centres had heard of it.

I think 20 years ago there was a wider variety of obscure plants .

Same problem with plants as so many things - corporatisation. There are 5 big nurseries that have gobbled up the small plant growers, and they are only suppling a minimum of shrubs and tree varieties, while pushing the 'potted colour' thing - providing ongoing sales. At present there are more members in garden clubs than in living memory to get a wider range of plants.

[kaihoka 2680]

does anyone know what's affecting this rata tree.

I had a big tree defoliate last summer. It seems to have come back with leaf now.

can find nothing with google .

[tudor 1530]

Would that be myrtle rust ?

 

[john berry 4755]

Looks like some sort of scale insect.