Greetings,
just out of interest, which plants are the bees visiting in your garden,
I have two hives and one of the bee favourites is the false pepper tree, and rosemary and lavender,
Well in my garden I have thyme, rosemary, but the bees are completely covering my Bottlebrush tree, hundreds of them, all day. My garden is in "Los Llanos del Peral" (The Zurgena one).
Terry.
We have siempre verde all around out garden and they love they flowers on them. Also, rosemary, bottle brush and we have loads of the lemon plant all around the patio area that grows like a bush. It has loads of flowers on it that bees seem to love. It also helps keep the mossies out of the house due to the strong smell of lemon.
Bees on our citrus trees and our monster bottlebrush - Los Carasoles
Tamarisk covered in bees, plus succulent with small red flowers also covered.
Last couple of months the hardenbergia was favourite, but now flowers fading have transferred to bottle brush, polygala and palm flowers
Greetings,
Whilst working in Los Carrascos this afternoon my better half spotted a swarm of honey bees heading out into the campo, its the third one this year including a swarm from one my hives,
Greetings,
Happy to report that we have just harvested two kilos of honey from one of our hives, thanks to all the rain we had in winter there are lots and lots of flowers which the bees enjoy,
I get a lot on my sage plant and loads on my snap dragons.
Lots of bees on a false pepper tree this morning, also wherever there are bottlebrush trees there are thousands of bees all merrily working away.
Greetings,
Anyone out there with Honeysuckle, ours is in full flower and normally lifting with bees, but as yet not a single bee,
Yes, we've got three or four varieties of honeysuckle and we have one or two visitors but not loads.
We have loads of it but no bees,however there is a tall tree nearby laden with yellow blossom,I don't know what it's called but can't say I've seen another anywhere, it is swarming with bees,can hear the hum from metres away!!!
Don't forget to buy your honey from local beekeepers wherever possible,
there is a café in Arboleas that sells their own,
and Patricio on Albox market,
Greetings,
At long last we have bees on our honeysuckle , it looks like they are taking pollen,
Greetings,
Anyone out there managed to grow Lupins from seed, the bees go mad for them, and I have been trying to grow them for three years ,
this year I have managed to grow three out of a full packet of seeds,
Bees on a pomegranite tree up in Bedar this afternoon.
Rain glorious rain,
all our bees are safely tucked up in their hives,
this rain will mean a good supply of flowers throughout the summer,
which in turn should mean more honey,
Fresh strawberries with greek yoghurt, and a spoonful of our own honey over the top, mmmmm!
Greetings,
Whilst pruning fan palms in mojacar today noticed hundreds of bees working the palm flowers, they even followed the flowers as they were loaded into the trailor,
Greetings,
6.15, This morning and our bees were covering the false pepper tree next door , sure am glad that I am not the only one who has to get up early for work .
Greetings,
same question as earlier, now that the bottle brush trees have finished flowering,
Anyone got eucalyptus trees in blossom ?
Our bees are busy with False pepper trees working the pollen and Aptenia, which is commonly known as the belly button plant, which by the way produces nectar when the temperature reaches 20c, and the honey from these plants is dark and very rich,
Keep your eyes open peeps !
Greetings,
the big eucalyptus tree just up the rambla from us is in full flower, we now have very happy bees,
any one else out there with eucalyptus trees ?
Cineraria has been the favourite here in our garden. I think that people often remove the yellow flowers but the bees have loved them.
Greetings, 40C ,in the shade !
Courgettes, happy to report that our bees are busy pollinating our courgette plants, and there are a few working on our neighbours eucalyptus tree, the Agave cactus in our area have grown the long flowering stems and should very soon be providing nectar and pollen,
when the temperatures rise consistently above 35C the queen bee stops laying eggs,
Greetings,
very disappointed with our neighbours big eucalyptus tree, it is loaded with flowers but there are hardly any bees working, anyone out there with a flowering eucalyptus tree being worked by the honey bees ?
Greetings,
Just an update on the eucalyptus tree, this morning the bees were all over the flowers so looking good on the eucalyptus honey front, I could do with a bit of feedback on types of flowers the bees are working on in your areas, thank you all.
Greetings.
I have just been to check on our bee hives, and there were wasps trying very hard to gain access to the honey inside the hives but the guard bees were having none of it, it looked like a pitched battle in miniature,
Interestingly though! I have been using the old jam jar with watered down jam as a means of controlling the wasps around our house, at first I used Mercadona jam, and got no takers, next step was to use some of Ruths homemade cherry jam, boom! over twenty wasps in the first day, the dead wasps will be fed to the ants, waste not want not.
In early spring and autumn,the Plectranthus Tomentosa,commonly known as Vicks Plant,because that's what it smells of when crushed,is very attractive to bees and butterflies,also acts as a mosquito repellent.It is a succulent with a spreading habit,so should be very easy to grow here.
Greetings,Arty Choke,
do you have any Plectranthus growing in your garden ?
if so do you have any cuttings to spare,
our bees were returning with pollen this morning which is a good indicator that the queen is back on egg laying duty, a drop of rain would bee a blessing for us all at this time of year.
Unfortunately Pipbob I don't,but as soon as it cools down I will see if I can get it at our local garden centre in Vera. It looks so familiar but they say it's not easy to find. However I'll let you know if I have any luck.
Greetings, 9.30 ish
just returned from walking the dog and on the way out passing the water channel which supplies all the little allotment plots in the valley there were lots of bees collecting water, the bees take the water back to the hive and use some of it to help keep the hive cool,
at work in La Perla there were bees on the Oregano,
Keep your eyes open folks.
Greetings,
the bees are busy once more gathering pollen, always a good sign that the queens have started to lay eggs again, if we get the rain which is forecast it will bring all the autumn flowers on really well,
Greetings,
nice cool morning 20C, early morning dog walk there are now a few more bees about, this morning they were working our neighbours false pepper tree taking pollen, anyone else have anything to say ?
We have a spreading succulent with small red flowers and they are on that everyday and it flowers all year, so unless it is raining they are there, also they are on our Plumbago's at the moment.
Sue
Greetings,
we have just been harvesting our almonds, again it has been a good year thanks to our bees who did the pollination in January this year, looking forward to a few courgettes in a couple of weeks.
Greetings,
all seems well in our bee hives apart from one bee somehow getting inside my veil and stinging me up my nose ! the beeaters were feasting on the flying bees round the hives, but they will soon be gone to Africa for the winter,
just managed to count eight raindrops this afternoon a few more would be rather good.
Greetings, Syd here, well actually its pipbob but I forgot my password and had to re.register, damnedold age !
As our bees have been a little slow in filling the frames with honey we had to buy a jar at albox market, we bought a jar of Tomillo/Espliego, which is thyme and lavender, and oh boy is this honey good !if you like a rich dark honey then this is the one for you, 7 euros for a kilo jar, I have to say that it is completely different to our own,
Adios for now
Greetings,
working in los carascos recently there were bees going mad for the pollen on the palm tree flowers, and after the big rains there are wild flowers coming into flower which we don't normally see until the new year,which should be good for honey production,
Greetings,
In Carrascos this afternoon the bees were mobbing an overgrown Japanese Honeysuckle, at home our bees are on the aptenia and the false pepper tree next door and a few working the lavanders, with all this good rain we should actually get a few jars of honey this year.
Had an interesting conversation with john this morning about bees. I had asked him to prune my cape honeysuckle but he pointed out to me the amount of bees that were taking pollen and nectar.
How fascinating watching them, had not noticed them before.
Watching with interest now.
Chrissy
Quote from: cgmaywood on November 20, 2015, 10:36:38 AM
Had an interesting conversation with john this morning about bees. I had asked him to prune my cape honeysuckle but he pointed out to me the amount of bees that were taking pollen and nectar.
How fascinating watching them, had not noticed them before.
Watching with interest now.
Chrissy
Is that the pink flowering climber? Loads of bees on ours,but not sure what it's called,it seems very common here,and grows like mad.
Greetings Jimel,
the pink flowering climber sounds to me like a Bignonia, try having a dekko on google and see what comes up,
Yes, that's the one Syd, a pain in the neck to prune,but have left it for now because the bees love it!
Greetings,
Whilst out with the dog yesterday we came across an almond tree which was in flower ! its at least a month early but the bee will love never the less,
No not the pink one, ours has loads of orange flowers and loads of bees. Our next door neighbour has the pink one again with loads of bees.
If you look closely you can see the pollen on their legs, fascinating
Chrissy
Greetings,
Aonium Arboreum ,
check this one out on google. our bees are mobbing it at the moment,
I saw hundreds of bees on a Nispero fruit tree this morning,I believe they start to blossom from Oct.
We've just put some tinned pears on the bird table and its attracted hundreds of bees!
Our bush us still full of flowers and bees
Chrissy
Christmas greetings,
A lot cooler this morning, it was ten oclock this morning before the bees started to venture out onto our lavender and gazinias .
stay warm and stay safe, and don't forget to check on your elderly neighbours Xxx
Greetings,
We have much needed rain at the moment, and I would suspect that our bees are tucked up in their hives keeping warm and dry,
Greetings again,
how wrong am I , we have just got back from limaria and even in this drizzle there were bees working the heather plants and the callistemon,
at home our bees are out on the almond blossom, interestingly there were twice as many bees on the pink almond flowers than on the white ones.
Greetings,
We have some very happy bees with this unseasonably warm weather, The almond blossom is coming into full swing and will be in flower for the next two months, after that we will have the citrus blossom,
managed to get two jars of honey from our hives last week, and at the end of this month we are increasing our hive count to four hives, a drop of rain would be helpful for the summer flowers.
Greetings,
Just had three weeks in the uk and not a bee in sight, got back this afternoon and the bees were working most of the flowers round our house, if the warm weather continues into the weekend I should be able to take a peek into the hives,
The fresias are in full bloom and the scent of them on a sunny day is a wonder to behold, oh ! and the bees love them its fun to watch them disappear inside the flower whilst taking the nectar ,
anyone else with anything to report ??
Greetings,
awesome weather for beekeeping, everywhere the bees are hard at work, we have a Borage plant which has grown into a small bush and it is covered with bees collecting nectar, if you have a spare plot of bare land which needs filling this plant does quite well on medium quality soil and the seeds germinate readily,
Beekeepers in the UK reckon the honey produced from borage flowers is one of the finest flavours of all the honeys..
Greetings,
lots of bees working the orange blossom in los menchones yesterday,
We have a beehive which was bursting with bees and at this time of year there is always the possibility of overcrowding leading to swarming so I took four frames containing eggs and larvae along with lots of young bees and put them in a purpose built nucleos hive and left them to it for eight days, by which time the bees had selected a couple of very young larvae and fed them exclusively on royal jelly and the result is two capped queen cells which should emerge in about eight days time, then fingers crossed she will mate with the drones and settle down and start to lay eggs which will be the start of a new colony,
Greetings,
where did March disappear to ?
had a quick peek at the hives this afternoon its still a tad cool to be opening them up and looking inside but the nucleos hive was active with workers returning with mostly nectar and a few loaded with pollen, the latter being a good indicator that there are eggs and larvae in the hive,
When the cool winds have gone to pester somebody else I will be able to do a proper inspection,
The bottle brush trees are in full bloom and the false peppers are budding up so our bees should be well catered for .
Greetings,
April been and gone !
Our bees are busy on the Honeysuckle which is growing at an alarming pace towards our front door, the Pollen baskets on their back legs are brim full of pollen they are also working the Bird of paradise tree and the Borage plant which by now resembles a Triffid is still being mobbed from first light until dusk,
The nucleos hive has made such good progress that I have transferred them into a full sized hive, we now have three working hives.
I would like to get a hive or two in our garden, but have no idea where to get a swarm from ?
Please message me at info@almeriahomes.com
Thanks
Greetings Lemurama,
Sorry about the delay, regarding your question about swarms,
Do you have any experience with beekeeping ? the laws are different here meaning any hive must be at least twenty five meters away from the nearest neighbours,
Our bees are busy on our neighbours pumpkin field taking pollen and the wild blackberries,
Greetings,
there are two big eucalyptus trees within easy flying distance of our bees and they are covered with flowers, unfortunately this year the trees are not producing any nectar and as a result the bees are not interested , just one of those strange quirks of nature,
any one out there with bees on eucalyptus blossom ?
Greetings,
We have some very hungry bees here at pottyfinca, so much so I have had to buy a block of bee fondant to help the bees until the rains arrive,
this time last year each hive had five frames of eggs and larvae, this year they barely cover one frame hence the feeding
anyone have anything to report ?
Greetings,
For the last three days our bees have been cooped up in their hives due to the cold wet days, today however all three hives have been very active, there are a few Gazinias coming into flower and the bees are taking the orange coloured pollen, most of the bees were working the Aptenia for the nectar.
Plenty of bee activity today on our roses, especially the white ones.
Greetings,
Spring must be just around the corner, whilst working in Mojacar today we saw a big Almond tree in full bloom and the bees were having a ball, they were also busy on the Japanese honeysuckle.
Greetings,
What a difference a sunny day makes, lots and lots of our bees have been busy on the almond blossom which has just started to come into bloom they were also busy with the gazinias, and a massive old Rosemary in Locaiba was heaving with bees, it would seem that we are to get more rain on Friday which in turn will help the mountain flowers to bloom, it would be nice to get some surplus honey this year, I had a go at making beeswax candles last week ! they burned OK but my better half suggested the shape was rather rude, the photos would back up this claim !!
Greetings,
Les and Pat up at Las Labores here where you did our pines over the pond. A few more flowers open on that large Mimosa and no bees seen on it even yesterday when they were very active in the extra heat. My 3 large rosemary bushes were covered in them!!
:great:
Greetings,
Up in Albanchez last week and there was a Mimosa tree in full pomp, good for the honey bees and the bumble bees, its just after 10.30 and it is too cold for our bees to fly, all the Almond trees are in flower we just need a little bit of warmth, by the way our Fresias are just starting to bud.
Seasons greetings,
Spotted the first almond blossom yesterday which is about a week later than usual, with all this warm weather our bees are looking in really good shape, this time last year with all the cold and rainy weather we very nearly lost a hive, the bees were so weak we spent over three weeks supplying them with syrup, happy to report that they made a full recovery so much so that all three hives swarmed whilst we were away on our jollies, we also managed to harvest ten kilos of honey which for our bees is a record amount .
Greetings,
The Bee eaters have landed, we heard them in llanos del peral this morning, just in time for the swarming season .
Seasons Greetings,
With all the late summer rains we had, the Almond trees are just starting to flower which is almost two weeks early, we also have a an awesome display of Aonium flowers and the bees are all over them when the sun warms the flowers , Honey has been in short supply this summer but I did manage to catch a swarm which came out of one of our hives.