Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: asleitch on July 07, 2004, 09:50:05 am
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I was worried about how much forage my bees would have, as I am using an out-apiary. In the end, I used the internet to solve my worries. Every square inch of the UK has been digitally photographed, from the air, at various different levels of zoom. You can get low resolution copies off the internet, and I "stitched" seveal together to give me a large aerial photo. I then marked on several circles to indicate 1 miles, 2miles, and 3 miles, and also dotted lines to indicate "half miles". I was amazed to find that their flying distances covered a small town, and all those lovely gardens and flowers! I'd never sat down and thought about it but it was obvious from studying the map, I'd just never realised how close it was.
(http://www.pbase.com/image/31006422/original.jpg)
The photos are visible from www.multimap.com, but the aerial shots are only available for UK places, as it is only the UK that has been mapped.
if you use the UK version of Multimap.com
you can convert from "map" to "aerial photo"
e.g.
http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&X=535000&Y=115000&scale=100000&width=700&height=400&gride=&gridn=&lang=&db=GB
my hives are just to the left of the wood.
http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&X=534210&Y=116854
Adam
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I was worried about how much forage my bees would have, as I am using an out-apiary.
I am not worried any more. I scattered my hives last weekend out. I put 4-5 hives per spot. In every spot there are over 20 hechares turnip rape. It started just blooming. After one week fire flowers start to bloom. They are best plants in nature.
It is also important, that there are no other bees diviging the yield. Now i have 18 hives in 4 spots. The farest is at 25 km away from my summer cottage. After two weeks turnip rape start to bloom near my cottage. I return a part of bees to my cottage yard.
Our yield season is only July, one month long. In August nature starts to prepare itself for winter and stops blooming.
Heather is the last real honey plant. We have awfully lot of heather but it gives honey guite seldom.
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My own "apiary," if two hives can be called such, is on my land, about 5 acres of which is grass/pasture, and another 5 forested (lots of maple ande sumac).
Next to my property is about 30+ acres of pasture which is mowed twice a year. Used to be a dairy farm, but the farmer retired, so my girls get those fields and forest to themselves.
Across the way is a feed corn field. Do bees like corn pollen? If so, they're in for a treat in a few weeks...
Since this is primarily a dairy area, the only sizable crops are feed corn and hay, neither of which I imagine is sprayed for "pests."
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I'm really amazed at these maps. Fantastic stuff! I'm speechless.
Beth
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Do you not have a similar thing in the US? Has someone not photographed the entire country? If by nothing else than sattelite? The photos are an excellent resource, and very interesting, I'm sure the US must have something similar? For a high resolution image, you have to pay £30 ($45)? but the low res are fine, and as you can see, provided all the information I needed.
Adam
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I found this a few years back, which includes topographic maps and actual photos you can zoom in/out. Kinda neat to check out the arial picture of your place!!!
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com
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I found this a few years back, which includes topographic maps and actual photos you can zoom in/out. Kinda neat to check out the arial picture of your place!!!
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com
That would seem to work, like I said, I'd just never sat down and put a pin in a map, and with a pair of compasses, marked how far the area is the bees fly, being a computer-nerd, I decided to do this with a digital-photo and some photo-editing software, but the results are the same. I'm still amazed each time I look at the map, just how wrong all my ideas about where the bees would be foraging are! I thought that town was 3 miles away, not less than 1!
Adam
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I agree with you there. My bees are NEVER in our yard, although woodsy, full of clover, apple trees, wifes perrenials, liliacs, etc, and not at the apple orchard a mile away, or the goldenrod field 1/4 mi. away, but at a commercial herb farm almost 4 miles away!! They dont build up honey very fast, but seem happy and thriving....certainly frustrating to the beekeeper!!
Also, they dont use the birdbaths too often which I put right in front of their hives for drinking, but a stream about 1/4 mile down through the woods. WEIRD!! :?
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WOW!!! That's great! Maybe when I get some time, I'll do the same thing for here. I wish we could get them in color. :twisted:
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That is fascinating - where about are you in the UK? I am going to look for the maps now. I am actually in Hertfordshire
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That is fascinating - where about are you in the UK? I am going to look for the maps now. I am actually in Hertfordshire
Sussex, at the very bottom of the pictures, the fields change slightly, and that is the slopes of the south downs.
Adam
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That is fascinating - where about are you in the UK? I am going to look for the maps now. I am actually in Hertfordshire
If you have major trouble, let me know, and I'll do my best to help.
Adam