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Moving the hives to good flowering spots at certain times of the year

  • 20-06-2014 01:46PM
    #1
    Mad4simmental
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,580 ✭✭✭


    Iv seen in other country's people move the hives to good flowering spots as certain times of the year to give them a helping hand. Anyone on here move a hive to the bog for a while when the heather is in full bloom? Abundance of good clean pollen for the hives?


Comments

  • #2
    SC Kevin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 245 ✭✭SC Kevin


    Mad4simmental wrote: »
    Iv seen in other country's people move the hives to good flowering spots as certain times of the year to give them a helping hand. Anyone on here move a hive to the bog for a while when the heather is in full bloom? Abundance of good clean pollen for the hives?

    I moved mine to OSR (oil seed rape) but thats about it, there are a few people who would move hives to Heather, but the problem is heather honey goes kinda like jelly in the frames so the only way to get it out, is to crush all the frames in a machine untill it start to "flow" again. Basically its a pain in back side.

    Having said that, heather honey is they nicest honey in the country and can very easily sell for 10 euro + a jar!


  • #3
    conor t
    Closed Accounts Posts: 154 ✭✭conor t


    Have a few hives near heather here but it is fairly temperamental you could fill a few boxes one year and get nothing the next. But you'd have nothing to lose by trying
    Apart from heather there's only osr and possibly beans that mite make it worth your while to move hives


  • #4
    _Brian
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 19,753 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    How about gorse, or whins as its called up these parts.. Is it any good for honey bees to forage of ??
    whins.gif


  • #5
    brianmc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 868 ✭✭✭brianmc


    _Brian wrote: »
    How about gorse, or whins as its called up these parts.. Is it any good for honey bees to forage of ??
    whins.gif

    It can be a good source of pollen when other pollens are in short supply apparently. The advantage of it is that it flowers for most of the year so it can fill a gap between two better pollens being available.

    I don't believe it's any good for nectar (and consequently honey).


  • #6
    SC Kevin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 245 ✭✭SC Kevin


    brianmc wrote: »
    It can be a good source of pollen when other pollens are in short supply apparently. The advantage of it is that it flowers for most of the year so it can fill a gap between two better pollens being available.

    I don't believe it's any good for nectar (and consequently honey).

    ^^

    what brianmc said, no nectar to be had, and is one of the earliest pollens available at the start of the year so can help with early build up of a colony


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  • #7
    solargain
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 331 ✭✭solargain


    If you had a good strong colony & temperature right you could get some heather sections, but to be honest we do not have that intensive mono crop here that they do in other countries. Even wit bees on oil seed rape you still see other pollens coming like horsechestnut, etc which is totally different from , the ORS pollen. My oil seed rape this year has a lot of darker honey in the frames like hawthorn and sycamore which was not obvious last year


  • #8
    Effects
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,741 ✭✭✭Effects


    Mad4simmental wrote: »
    Iv seen in other country's people move the hives to good flowering spots as certain times of the year to give them a helping hand. Anyone on here move a hive to the bog for a while when the heather is in full bloom? Abundance of good clean pollen for the hives?

    Bog heather is supposed to be crap. It's heather up high in the likes of Wicklow you want.


  • #9
    bpmurray
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,275 ✭✭✭bpmurray


    The folk in Louth move hives into the Cooley mountains in August & September for the heather honey. The big problem with the stuff is that it's really, really thick and requires a press to extract it rather than the normal equipment. The reality is that there are no areas in Ireland too far from flowers, even in the cities, so you don't have to move them. If you wanted to help farmers, particularly with rapeseed or beans, then by all means move hives to the fields, but it's really not necessary.


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