Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: What's flowering: Victoria  (Read 63193 times)

Offline Geoff

  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Field Bee
  • ********
  • Posts: 918
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #20 on: January 18, 2016, 08:05:12 pm »
The pink flowering gum holding up since before Christmas.
We have 10 of these trees in various stages of blossom.



« Last Edit: January 19, 2016, 04:56:48 am by Geoff »
Local Area Network in Australia - the LAN down under.

Offline Honeycomb king

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #21 on: January 19, 2016, 09:01:06 am »
Red flowering iron barks, lots of nectar but not much nutrition in the pollen. Photo of the trunk too and I can I'd it properly.
Do you have hives on it. ?

Offline Steampunked

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 36
  • Gender: Female
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #22 on: January 19, 2016, 06:51:12 pm »
Hello all! 

I'd be curious as a brand new bee keeper to know what will be flowering over the next couple of months in the Dandenongs - I received my package in December, and so it's a bit of a tight squeeze to get everything established nicely before winter.  I'm surrounded by Regnans which apparently flower in Autumn, so I'm hoping that will assist, but I've no idea if they have any value for nectar or bee food.
Kept by a tiny miniature suburban farm by chickens, parrots, a wallaby, a 3.5 year old and my partner.

Offline Lancej

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 199
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #23 on: January 19, 2016, 07:47:38 pm »
Hi HCK
Keep the posts coming, its good to see whats around. I have my bees on Lucerne at the moment,  with the rain today things will pick up.
Lance

Offline Honeycomb king

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #24 on: January 20, 2016, 09:24:43 am »
Steampunked, nectar and pollen both good on E.regnans, sorry I haven't been into the dandy to have a look. Very hard to pick anyway as they hold the buds for so long and on the higher tips too. Might need a drone (mechanical one that is). Messmate is flowering very well and yielding both pollen and nectar. A good feed of messmate is a excellent start for a new hive to bed down with for winter, even though it is flowering very early this year.I'll get back to you regards other floral sources.
Ps manna gum is looking good there around montrose so should be elsewhere if you have it, for autumn.


Offline Steampunked

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 36
  • Gender: Female
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #25 on: January 20, 2016, 05:56:59 pm »
Awesome response, thanks!  I can probably actually check it out - I have a friend with a drone and I have a couple of powerful owls nesting on my property with some absurdly fluffy chicks, so I'm dying to have a peer in at their nest.  They're in a Regnans, so why not have a look at both!  I'll check out the Messmate - very interested in local conservation and ecology, so this is all excellent information for me.
Kept by a tiny miniature suburban farm by chickens, parrots, a wallaby, a 3.5 year old and my partner.

Offline Honeycomb king

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #26 on: January 28, 2016, 03:43:05 am »
Steampunked good luck with the drone. Mountain grey gum is flowering in the kinglake ranges so may well be the same in the dandy s. Mountain swamp gum seems to be well budded through out most of victoria so if there is any of that in your area that should flower in the autumn.

Has anyone checked out the long leaf box for buds for this autumn.? I've seen a bit but haven't had a chance to get to the diamond valley to check it out.

Offline OzBuzz

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1031
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #27 on: February 02, 2016, 03:17:06 am »
Steampunked good luck with the drone. Mountain grey gum is flowering in the kinglake ranges so may well be the same in the dandy s. Mountain swamp gum seems to be well budded through out most of victoria so if there is any of that in your area that should flower in the autumn

Honeycomb King is there any way that I can tap in to your wealth of knowledge lol... The hardest thing for me in beekeeping is finding locations, and identifying species, so as to have options as to where I can move my beehives. I have two really good books "Eucalyptus of Victoria & Tasmania by Dean Nicolle" and "Honey Flora of Victoria by R. Goodman" and I still feel like it's over my head! I spend ages pouring over Google Earth identifying forests and trying to determine what species might be present only to get out there and feel completely over my head..  any advice? I'm ideally trying to find lots of private properties near different species where I can move some of my hives to. I don't have many hives but I do like to keep them well fed and looked after. Thanks for your detailed input to this topic! This is the most challenging area of beekeeping for me

Offline Honeycomb king

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #28 on: February 02, 2016, 05:41:23 pm »
Always keen to not only pass on my knowledge but teach it to others. Send any photos of the trees your trying to identify, photo of tree trunk, leaves, buds, flowers, bark etc.any other info like location, approximate height above sea level, other species around etc.
 Those two books are great, in fact I was only looking through" honey flora of victoria" last night. The fact that your out there looking at the forest and searching for information makes it easy to teach/learn.
I'll try and add photos to my findings, and include genus and species so it's easier to search for them in books/Google etc. I leave a lot of information out for fear of boring people, but it's often those small bits of info that are parts of the puzzle for this season or the next.
Plant id is always a challenge but suddenly it clicks, I've always enjoyed those moments when I see the penny drop as an apprentice recognizes a specie or picks the difference between two similar varieties.
I laughed at your comment that when you go out into the forest you feel that it's completely over your head, look up it is... but remember to look down the under story  is very important.
I too try to find private property rather than state forest etc.more secure and out of site from general public, but most importantly the landholders often have a connection to there land and surrounds.  My conversations with some of the farmers helps me to make decisions on the upcoming season etc and I know that goes both ways as they know I'm out there also observing and translating what the land is trying to tell us.
Enjoy the challenge, good luck.

Offline Honeycomb king

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #29 on: February 06, 2016, 02:55:23 am »
North east: Mountain swamp gum, Eucalyptus ovata has just started to flower in the past 2 days. Only 1% so far, but with a week  of warm weather forecast it will be great to see more flowers opening up.  Generaly heavy budding too as swamp gum seems to be capable of more than not.  The rain events of the  past 2 weeks has spoiled the blue gum, there is still flowers to come but not a lot.  Buds have developed for next year too so keep an eye on their development over the the next 12 months. The manna gum buds are holding steady and have done while other gums in fact all plants have all gone early. (Not sure what that means it's just an observation. Another one of those things you take note of and use it in your decision making later.)

Long leaf box is not far off, I'll get back to you all on that later in the week when I return to WiFi. (Got use of the WiFi here where I have bees for tonight).
Red Stringy bark is also now just starting to flower.
Anyone needing to build up bees this cooler wetter than expected summer has made for some good Lucerne crops,  so get out there and talk to local farmers.
Go well, let me know how your going out there.

Offline Honeycomb king

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #30 on: February 12, 2016, 08:14:23 am »
Manna gum has started flowering this week in the strathbogies. This is perfect timing as the blue gum has completely finished and the messmate has been a bit patchy with the rain events of January.
In the high country of the northeast blue gum is still just flowering.  The manna gum and swamp gum aren't to far away. With about 1 % of mountain swamp gum flowers  open on Tuesday this week's sun should bring out more.
 Manna gum at lower country has been flowering since mid January and should go a few more weeks. The grey box is well into it but not too late for those wanting to move hives onto it as there are still lots of buds. Red stringy in those areas is on about the same time line so should help with protein deficiency of the pollen in the grey box.
Lucerne is flowering well with this mild end to summer for those looking for good breeding conditions, any farmers letting it flower for seed will be keen for you to be there with your bees. Go and knock on there door.
 Looking forward as mentioned previously the yellow box is looking great and is budding, hard to tell yet if it will flower too early in the season to yield.
Red box is budded but looking like it will be running late so maybe November rather than October, but don't set your calendar yet I'll get back to you on that during the winter.  (That's just another one of those things you put into your mind as the season is currently running 2 to 3 weeks early, what is going to change to make it run late in spring).
Messmate in the hills around seymour has had next year's buds washed out to growth with all that rain around there in January.
P.s. how can I attach photos to this blog, I tried and got a message saying file to large.  Wanted to add tree/bud/flower photos.
Anyway go well, hope your getting some honey.

Offline Flycaster

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 51
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #31 on: February 15, 2016, 07:39:50 pm »
Hi, is mess mate the same as stringybark in tasmania?  There appears to be lots of buds on my local stringybarks so I'm hoping that they will flower soon. Its been a very dry summer in tasmania  (south east anyway). I notice references to bees getting aggressive with messmate... why is that?

Cheers

Offline Honeycomb king

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #32 on: February 16, 2016, 07:17:51 am »
Messmate is Eucalyptus obliqua,  sorry I should use the botanical name to save confusion. A bad habit I've slipped into since leaving production horticulture and going back to the family buisness of beekeeping.  When out searching floral resources I often take other horticulturalist with me, people I've worked with in the past.they are constantly scoffing at me for that. Beekeepers seem to have their own run of common names locally,  as do forestry industry etc etc.
Yes  sometimes called messmate stringy bark, all part of the same sub group of eucalyptus.  Easily picked as the leaf is oblique, that is either side of the leaf margins join the leaf stalk at uneven points.  ( which will make no sense until your looking at a leaf. Then you'll say "oh yeah I see what he means".
 No idea why it turns bees nasty. Seems to be when it ends or stops and starts. It's very noticeable,  they will jump you well before you even go near the hives. I tend to work it on my own as it's a bit unfair on anyone working for me.  Ive gone home early and come back the next day with 2 pairs of pants on and put dishwasher gloves on under leather gloves as I'd got too many stings the day before.  No idea how many but a few hundred a day is enough.  That said very good honey for winter stores and high protein pollen approx 24% with  all the correct amino acids for good bees through winter.

Blue gum now finished. E.globulus ssp bicostata that is.
Mountain swamp gum E.camphora at about 10% flowering now.

Offline Flycaster

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 51
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #33 on: February 16, 2016, 04:59:32 pm »
Thanks very much for your answer 😀 Is the honey any good for human consumption or is it best just left on for the bees?

i am hoping so as there hasn't been much of anything else this year 😢


Offline Lancej

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 199
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #34 on: February 16, 2016, 06:03:54 pm »
Heading to Trentham today, will check Swamp gums to see how they are doing. Thanks for the reports HCK.
Lance

Offline Honeycomb king

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #35 on: February 16, 2016, 06:14:09 pm »
Messmate is a very dark honey, great flavour,  has a sharp molasses taste.fantastic over ice cream.  I've done some this year as honeycomb I'll let you know the response I get on it. Being a darker honey it's health benefits are good not only for us but the bees too.

NB swamp gum is 3 different species that are all extremely close varieties.  Check books or goggle for info. E.ovata,  E.camphora,  E. Yarraensis. (Don't trust my spelling).

Offline Flycaster

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 51
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #36 on: February 16, 2016, 07:43:31 pm »
Thanks for that 😀 Fingers crossed then.


Offline Honeycomb king

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #37 on: February 19, 2016, 05:20:08 am »
Messmate all done in th ed kinglake ranges.

Offline Steampunked

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 36
  • Gender: Female
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #38 on: February 21, 2016, 07:28:34 pm »
Something's going gangbusters in the Mount Dandenong area - I can see a lot of pale yellow pollen being brought back, with very busy hives and quick drawing out of comb.
Kept by a tiny miniature suburban farm by chickens, parrots, a wallaby, a 3.5 year old and my partner.

Offline Lancej

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 199
  • Gender: Male
Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #39 on: February 22, 2016, 06:38:58 am »
Still on the Lucerne, bees are doing great, I will be using QE from now on. Brood every where.


 

anything