Last week we had another brief flurry of snow, and it was back to huddling with my coat on in the office. But then this weekend brought sunshine, and it was wonderful to see the bees pinging back and forth into their hives, and even bringing back pollen!
Crocuses
Every year I like to photograph the purple crocuses that shoot up from the apiary floor. This year’s photo is blurrier than I’d like, but hopefully you can spot the traffic-colour orange that nestles within. Ted Hooper says of crocus: “excellent source of early pollen. Low on the ground, and therefore sheltered, it can be worked at low temperatures.” Look out for its cheery orange in the pollen baskets of your bees.
You can see these crocuses are partially open; the time of day was around 3pm and crocuses are usually fully open around midday. I was interested to read the following information in ‘Plants and Honey Bees: their relationships‘ by David Aston & Sally Bucknall (2004), p69: “Tulips and crocuses show thermonasty, a response to a general, non-directional temperature stimulus; the crocus is sensitive to as little as 0.5C change in temperature, and this change will determine the opening and closing of the flower.“
Snowdrops
The snowdrops also offer hope and a source of food to the bees. Ted Hooper sees these as “The real harbingers of spring, a patch naturalized in a lawn will delight the bees’ senses as well as your own.” Bees collect the nectar from grooves on the inner surface of the petals.
Some other plants which will be flowering now – hazel, willow, aconite. Emma discovered a sweet post by the National Trust’s Osterley Park blog on the catkins of hazel, which are essential food for emerging bumble bee queens:
Bumble bees frolicking in the yellow catkins of hazel – a beautiful blog on the wildlife of Osterley Park wp.me/p3aNCc-e @osterleynt
— Emma Sarah Tennant(@EmmaSTennant) February 17, 2013
Above, our bees on their fondant – some have died within the packet. Perhaps of coldness or tiredness? Emma noticed that our hive feels worryingly light; I can even heft it one-handed. As we are already feeding fondant there is nothing more we can do now – just wait, wait and hope.
Are your bees finding pollen? What’s flowering where you are?
Nothing’s flowering where we are . . . maybe by late May . . .
Not even any flowering trees? The bees must have a hard time in your area.
You know, I should look into it . . . some of my trees don’t even have leaves out until late May, let alone flowers, but some wildflowers are probably early May.
We still get hard freezes and snow in May, so I don’t think many plants would risk flowering early.
I’ve planted any number of aconites in the last few years with nothing to show and this year – one solitary flower. I take some solace from the fact that at least it is established and perhaps next year I’ll see more! We have winter flowering cherry in flower (given by a friend for our wedding as he said it would always be in flower for our anniversary, which is 20th Feb so he was right). We have lots of snowdrops, some pink ?Viburnam and a Mahonia that looks as though it is getting ready. I think I will put some crocus close to the hives when I can – I think you are right about their value to bees given their sheltered position. I didn’t get all my alliums planted in Autumn so finished planting them yesterday – put in about another 60. You cannot have too many alliums!
What colour was your one solitary flower? Your garden sounds like a wonderful bee haven.
The aconite was yellow – they look in other ways like a choir boy – upright and with a collar round the yellow ‘head’. there was a murder mystery on TV that used aconite root to poison the husband……
A fab post to read this evening as I’m recovering after planting 40 odd flowering bulbs next to the Beehaus… Orange & purple crocuses, snowdrops and some unusual white, multi-headed daffodils… All collected from the fab team at Cultivate London on Friday…
My girls are bringing in pollen, always an encouraging sign, so bringing it closer should help them and pretty up our woodland corner…
Ooh fantastic! Will look beautiful next spring.
In Northumberland, I suspect we are about two weeks behind you ( weather forgiving ) – snowdrops are just appearing, I have one crocus, but aconite just appearing, however Helebore in sheltered spot out.
Hazel and Willow just coming and Mahonia has been flowering for a month, but too cold or the bees to be out.
London does tend to have a slightly warmer microclimate of its own. Glad spring is coming to you too.
Flowers already! I’m jealous…it is still -13C here…during the day.
Arrrrgh! Not sure I could handle that. You must be tough.
Hehehe, well, you get used to it. A couple of weeks ago, we had temps below -20 C. And I’ve lived in places that got as cold as -34 C. So this is comparatively warm.
Eek! A chilly winter’s day in London is more than cold enough for me.
How cold does it get in London?
Average lows are around 2.6 C. We usually get snow once or twice a year for 2-3 days at a time, then it all melts. Probably sounds really balmy to you!
Ha, yes it does sound nice.
Snowdrops. Some daffodils are in bloom.
The daffs are such a cheerful flower. I’ve not seen many out yet.
Lovely post & photos! Thank you~
Thanks for reading
What is fondant made from,, can I make it myself? excellent post, i love the snow drops, wish we had some. i am still miserable at the loss of my bees, but i am starting again this spring, with more knowledge! c
Hi Cecilia, was very sorry to hear about your bees, I know how well you cared for them. Glad that you’re trying again. The fondant is just like the fondant on cakes, made from sugar and water. We buy it in, as it’s cheap here and also has added essential oils for the bees. Rusty at Honey Bee Suite has a good recipe: http://www.honeybeesuite.com/how-to-make-fondant-from-table-sugar/
No flowers here yet. Lucky you! Hope your bees are OK.
Seeing flowers makes me happy, hope some come to you soon too.
Oh now, I don’t like that the hive is so light. I’ve got my fingers crossed for you and your bees.
Here it’s mid-summer which isn’t as good as spring but my bees are busy busy busy. The gum trees are in bloom and the bees carry back white pollen in their baskets. Plus bunches of yellow that I think they might be getting from vegatable gardens in the neighbourhood. Or anywhere actually – there is a LOT in bloom in Sydney. I could just have the luckiest bees on the planet.
Lucky lucky bees! Fantastic that they have so many flowers to choose from.
No snowdrops here yet. Just snowfall. First blooms of anything are probably still a month off.
Lots of commenters here seem to be in the same situation. Hope spring starts soon for you.
Thank you but even climate change hasn’t helped that much. Yet.
Thanks for a nice post. Last week, on a sunny day here in Devon I saw some snowdrops by the side of a lane with a beautiful fat bumblebee (possibly a white tailed) taking pollen.
Fantastic, if she was fat wonder if she was a newly emerged queen. It’s lovely to start seeing the bees out and about again.
It’s lovely seeing the snowdrops and crocus. I’ve yet to see any bees or bumbles on them, I would love to though. What a great photo that would make!
Yes – I’ve seen the bees on them briefly before, but never long enough to take a photo!
No flowers here. Still more snow to come next week, but I fed them fondant. I don’t really like bulbs, but I’ll put some crocuses in this fall just for the girls.
I’m sure the girls will appreciate their crocuses. Hope flowers come for you soon.
We’ve had a rhododendron in bloom all winter oddly enough. The crocus popped up a few weeks ago, and I’m sure I’ve seen a dandelion or two in bloom…
Slightly unrelated; we had a pea sprout up of its own accord in one of our raised beds, weeks before we’re “supposed” to plant them, and have dozens of carrot starts in a different raised bed. Apparently the bees are doing an excellent job of pollinating things around here.
The dandelions must be pretty early. Bet the peas and carrots will taste really nice.
Yeah, we already have a housefly for some reason. Global warming is throwing everything off!