Passing Up Blooms

[Tom K-B]

This is my first year as a beek. We have two Crab Apples in our front yard. They bloomed weekend before last. As I stood under them that first weekend there were so many bees in those blooms, I could almost feel the buzzing. Everywhere I look there were bees, bees and more bees. It's now about ten days later and most of the blooms have fallen off. But there are still quite a few blooms still left. However, there haven't been any bees in them for several days. My wife says they haven't been there since it rained late last week. I'm assuming if there were pollen or nectar to be harvested, the bees would still be there. Will the rain wash it out? Or did the bees clean it out so quickly?

[Kathyp]

a couple of things.  one is that they will pass up blooms on one thing if they find something else they like better.  look around to see what else is blooming in your area.

another is that they tend to hit different things at different times of the day.  it might be apples in the AM and clover in the PM with some dandelions in between.  it takes a lot of watching to figure it out, but it's fun to see what they go after.

[capt44]

A bee has a mind of it's own.
Like was said they will fly to whatever they like best.
I've set hives on a field of white clover, looked like snow.
But the bees flew over it and went somewhere else.
But then one day I looked and they were all over it.
The bees know what bloom is in it's prime.
draw a straight line from your hives location on a map 2 miles.
Then draw a circle around the hive using the 2 mile radius.
That means that hive can have around 8,000 acres to decide where to feed at any given time.

[Joe D]

Capt. there is a site, senior moment, I don't remember where now, but you can put in your address and it draws the circle for you.  Bigger than you would think. It will give you 1, 2 and 3 miles.



Joe

[Rodger J.]

Here's the site Capt44 was referencing.

http://bees.morkland.org/coverage/

[Rodger J.]

Sorry, the site Joe D was referencing.

Sorry Joe D

[fshrgy99]

Great site, added to my favorites!
Thanks

[Tom K-B]

Thanks for the great info! And for the great website! I added it to my favorites, too. Wow, it's amazing how far they will go.

[L Daxon]

Yes, they CAN go far, IF they need to, but they are efficient little creatures and will seek out the best forage closest to home.  I recently read that they prefer to remain  within about a 1/2 mile of the hive, but will go out farther if the nectar/pollen is of a higher quality.  And of course in a dearth they may be forced to go 2 or 3 miles to find anything at all.  But at some point it takes more energy to fly to the nectar source than what will be harvested and it is just not worth the trip.  ld

[don2]

True. nothing can use 60% to get 50%. They know. :roll:d2

[CapnChkn]

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/calculators

2nd from the last.  This calculator will draw rings of whatever size you want, including feet, around a GPS point.  In the "radius" field, put the rings you want to map like this:
.25mile, .5mile, .75mile and so on.  It will then draw a map showing different colors of rings determined by the radius you chose.

As a plus, in the lower left hand corner you can see a box with "measurement tools." In this you could choose two points on the map and it will tell you precisely how far these two points are from each other, a number of points to tell you how long a road is, and you can choose a number of points to define an area and it will tell you how much.

[L Daxon]

Hive Tracks also has a mapping feature, if you happen to use that, which I do.
www.hivetracks.com