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Author Topic: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)  (Read 26218 times)

Offline Dane Bramage

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Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« on: July 17, 2007, 12:03:47 am »
Background (for those who don't know):  this is my first season and my apiary is in Oregon adjacent wetlands.

The blackberries have 99% finished up and I was expecting a slow down so that I could harvest the unexpected surplus my bees have accumulated thus far.  Not gonna happen!!  The flow is just accelerating and all the supers I harvested last week are again full and mostly capped.  Here are some images as a sort of pictorial documentary on the Mid July "flow that I know" (& don't know, need some help identifying some please!).

First up is this huge tropical looking tree in my driveway:


I love the way these flowers look, the smell is just divine and my bees must concur as they are eating this one up (tried to catch a pic of one here, upper right).  What is this tree?


Next up is another unknown flowering tree in my yard.  This one is mostly finished but the bees were all over it as well.  Here is a close up of one flower:


We're getting closer to where the actual hives are situated now.  This flowering tree bush (hanging over the hives) smells just so pungent & sweet.


I have no idea what it is (lil help pls?) but the bees are all over this one as well!






Lastly, and this one I actually do know is the purple loosestrife. 


You could see this one in the background of the previous hives pic (w/flowering overhanging tree).  The wetlands are loaded (but not at all over-run) with these and I'm fairly certain this is the main part of my current nectar flow.. though there are several I did not include.. even the dandelions are still going strong here.

I'm pulling ~ 1/2+lb of this pollen from one hive/trap per day. 



It is very sweet tasting and my local beek supply said it must be berry pollen.  I have doubts on that (what berry is blooming now here & has dark pollen??).  Anyone have pics of purple loosestrife pollen?

That's all the news to report now from my apiary.  Hope you all enjoyed and anyone who has an ID on any of the flowering trees, please don't hesitate to reply.

Cheers,
Dane




Offline doak

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2007, 12:25:20 am »
Excuse the spelling.
The first is Mimosa
The one at the hives is butterfly bush.
Can't help on the other two
doak

Offline Zoot

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2007, 12:53:07 am »
Brane,
You're lucky to have so much color around your place. Years ago my bees loved mimosa but the trees don't do well here anymore - they succumb to a root fungus and you rarely see them survive after a flowering season or 2. As for the purple loosetrife, ours doesn't bloom until mid August. Hope you have a great season.

Offline JP

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2007, 01:12:39 am »
Man, am I jealous! Hoping to get a fall flow here.
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Offline Dane Bramage

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2007, 01:33:28 am »
Thanks for the kinds replies all!

& I think we've a winner on the IDs (thx Doak!) ~>  Mimosa & butterfly bush.

Zoot ~> Doing a little research, I'm reading that many have experienced problems with the Mimosa.  I've just this one huge tree (guessing 30' tall, bit bigger than the adjacent cherry blossoms) that was there prior to my acquiring this property, seems to be doing fine & hasn't caused any problems (no proliferation).  Do you have any ID on the loosestrife pollen?   

I guess my honey is going to evolve from blackberry to purple loosestrife, Mimosa, purple butterfly bush, etc.,.  Should be interesting!!

Good luck, hope you get the flow going too JP! 

Offline Mici

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2007, 07:39:37 am »
nice set of pics.

hmmm, Mimosa you say doak...there are many sub-species of mimosas right?
the plant just can't be tropical. i saw it in hungary last year and it truly is one of the gorgeous trees!!.
the last flower is...well i don't know what it is, but it's a swampy flower, we have lots of it here and we use it to stop diare for cattle.

Offline tillie

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2007, 08:54:11 am »
I love how beekeeping takes you into so many other interesting areas - definitely those are mimosa and butterfly bush - we have both all over Georgia, but I don't know the big pink flower. 

Beekeeping leads me to more flower/tree identification, wax, weather, other insects, plants to grow in my garden, candlemaking, solar wax melting, honey for cooking, etc, etc, etc  :-D

Linda T back in Atlanta

Offline BMAC

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #7 on: July 17, 2007, 09:09:09 am »
Very nice Dane.  I will be lucky to get 1 super full off each hive this year.  The April freeze we had really screwed things up around here......
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Offline KONASDAD

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #8 on: July 17, 2007, 11:11:12 am »
Funny, my bees ignore the mimosa entirely and use the butterfly bush only in august and after as the flow diminishees and nothing else is available. Also, the bees like the white butterfly bush the most as do yellow swallowtail butterrflies during the summer and monarchs during fall migration. The white gets really big too and is a very low maitanance shrub/border planting. You can hack-it almost to the ground periodically to refresh and reshape during winter. Awesome first year.
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Offline Dane Bramage

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Mimosa ~> Albizia julibrissin
« Reply #9 on: July 17, 2007, 01:00:20 pm »
Mici ~> The Mimosa is Albizia julibrissin, also known as "Silk Tree". 
The last flower is the only one I actually knew and is called Purple Loosestrife here.  I think it is the same as the one you're familiar with as it grows in the conditions you've described and is also used as a medicinal herb.

Offline KONASDAD

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #10 on: July 17, 2007, 01:26:14 pm »
Dont forget to let the bees have some of that pollen. Keep the trap closed periodically. What trap are you using? Looks clean and juicy!
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Offline Dane Bramage

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #11 on: July 17, 2007, 02:19:46 pm »
Thx Kona ~> I'm going to keep collecting 100% until late season on the single hive I'm collecting.  I will gauge that hive's progress against the others.  FWIW I've read loads on both sides of the pollen trap argument.  The trap is a top mounted Sundance II and it does allow "enough" pollen to get through.  I'm looking forward to a spring feeding supplement of real pollen next year.

I've received confirmation on the sweet-tasting, dark purple pollen as being from the purple loosestrife (from none other than the Sundance manufacturer himself, lol).

Offline Mici

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #12 on: July 17, 2007, 04:24:10 pm »
they say it's ok to keep it on full time, the bees just redirect their workforce on pollen gathering, so it's not a problem, but..feeding is urmmmm appreciated.
at least check if they have enough.

Offline Understudy

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #13 on: July 17, 2007, 05:09:12 pm »
Nice Nice Nice.

The plants look awesome. One of the nice things about my travels is I get to see all the different plants that grow in different zones.

It really quite amazing. take a picture of some of your honey so we can see what that looks like.

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Brendhan

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Offline Moonshae

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #14 on: July 17, 2007, 09:05:27 pm »
My butterfly bushes do not have nearly such dense clusters of flowers...there's quite a bit of space between  them. They might be more attractive if they were full like that!
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Offline Cindi

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #15 on: July 17, 2007, 11:52:50 pm »
Dane, you got some serious beautiful pictures going on there.  The butterfly bush, I know as Buddleia.  I think this was discussed some time ago in a forum here.  I grow the white buddleia, I honestly have never seen any bees on it, I will have to take a better look one day when it blooms, which it should be doing soon.

I love the mimosa tree that you have, such pretty pink flowers.  I would love to grow it around my home, I am going to touch base with our local nursery and garden forum I belong to and see if it is indigenous to my area.  Gotta have it, love that tree.

Keep those pictures going Dane, and what on earth are you going to do with so darned much honey????  Lol, and gleefully at that.  Have a wonderful day, keep on keepin' on.  Cindi
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Offline KONASDAD

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #16 on: July 18, 2007, 11:45:19 am »
My butterfly bushes do not have nearly such dense clusters of flowers...there's quite a bit of space between  them. They might be more attractive if they were full like that!

In the middle of winter, hack'em down to about 15-24 inches. Dont be shy, just attack. They will respond w/ renewed vigour quickly in spring. My butterfly bushes now seed like crazy b/c of the bees. I hav'em growing all over the yard this spring in places I have to mov'em from .Oh well, more work to do!
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Offline Cindi

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #17 on: July 19, 2007, 10:11:42 am »
Konasdad.  I know what you mean about the bees spreading seeds.  I am sure they must adhere to their legs somehow and get dropped off.  I have clover growing like nothing on this earth at my place, in places where one could never dream possible.  Too much seed spreading to be coincidence  :)  Have a wonderful day, great life.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline BEE C

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2007, 07:25:28 pm »
Thats awesome! I just planted that same type of butterfly bush, a pink variety and a yellow ball shaped flower butterfly bush.  Ive noticed the bees all over the davidii butterfly bush (blue).  The monarchs were all over it too.  When I went up to it I noticed lots of bees.  I have an old one that I didn't chop down till spring and its doing good now too.  Your lucky to have the mimosa tree.  Ive heard that in south america and in the middle east the mimosa is called the bee tree.  It has been immortilized in mythology because of its association with bees.  Mimosa trees have an alkaloid that is almost identical to human serotonin.  If not mistaken, the worlds most expensive honey comes from the saudi area where there is a cult associated with the tree and the honey it produces.  Mimosa trees also figure prominently in the masonic myth of hirim...but i digress...

Offline Moonshae

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Re: Flow ~> *Accelerating* (image intensive thread)
« Reply #19 on: July 19, 2007, 09:26:51 pm »
So Dane, after your post about your major flow, still think you won't get 112 lbs/hive this year? Sounds like you're gonna be giving it a good shot!

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=9674.msg62991#msg62991
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