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Author Topic: What's flowering: Victoria  (Read 63032 times)

Offline Honeycomb king

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #40 on: February 25, 2016, 06:29:28 pm »
Grey box around Yea and Heathcote etc are now in full swing with more flowers to come, looks like a long flowering.  Stringy bark is slow to take off, but has started.the pollen on the red stringy is more nutritious than that of grey box so hoping for a good balance to give us good bees in the spring. Bastard box or long leaf box is about to flower around Yea as well. So again good quality and quantity of pollen to supplement the nutritional in balance of the grey box. White box is looking good too but caution there as some beekeepers call it "knock em down box". I'll get back to you on that if it looks like being a problem.
Mountain swamp gum is only yielding pollen as of Sunday hoping by now it's giving nectar too with this warmer weather. I may get out to the desert country this week to see how the banksia, s both ornata and marginata are looking for autumn, winter and a check on tea tree etc for spring.

Offline Lancej

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #41 on: February 25, 2016, 09:28:33 pm »
Thanks again for your reports HCK

Offline lomatia

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #42 on: March 02, 2016, 02:45:18 am »
Regarding Messmate ....... finished up here well and truly ...... bees are a bit tetchy. Go near them and out they pour. Earlier I the season there were no problems. Let's see if they settle down.

Offline Honeycomb king

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #43 on: March 02, 2016, 06:54:19 am »
Yes good fun isn't it. Seems to last about 6 weeks after the flow has finished. I Got torn to pieces this week, it's amazing when their like that they get in through gaps that they never before. Crawl up legs and up my jacket. They don't rob hives, like bees do when a flow has stopped just let you know your not welcome.
Anyone in a built up area caution with kids and neighbors,  feeding syrup will keep them busy. Don't open feed them that will make worse.
Free bee venom therapy.

Offline Steampunked

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #44 on: March 02, 2016, 10:25:02 pm »
Mountain Ash where I am (Yarra Ranges) has just started to flower.  Several branches fell off a few trees recently and now I don't have a compost bin anymore.  The flowers were mostly tight buds but a few had started to open.
Kept by a tiny miniature suburban farm by chickens, parrots, a wallaby, a 3.5 year old and my partner.

Offline Honeycomb king

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #45 on: March 03, 2016, 08:51:13 am »
Mountain swamp gum (eucalyptus camphora )is flowering well now and yielding very well.  Only got a quick look at hives this evening, I'll get a full idea tomorrow.  With this long dry period it's great for the nectar flow.

Offline Lancej

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #46 on: March 09, 2016, 05:48:00 am »
HCK, how long do you expect the mountain gum to flower?

Offline Honeycomb king

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #47 on: March 09, 2016, 07:20:50 am »
Mountain swamp gum. (Euc camphora). As long as it stays relatively dry (as I write this it is raining), 2 to 4 weeks.  It's growing with manna gum where my hives are in the high country/north east vic. So hoping the manna will start just as the mountain swamp gum finishes. Similar pollen and nectar from both.
Will back at those hives on Friday or Saturday. I'll have a better idea then.
How did you finish up on the Lucerne? Lance.

Offline Lancej

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #48 on: March 09, 2016, 09:18:05 am »
The few hives I had on it did really well, bee numbers are up, a bit of excess honey. But the sheep are now on it and it's time to move again. There are a few swamp gums in flower and I will be checking them out this weekend.  I have one hive that needs re queening before they come home, hope to have it done before the last flow finishes. By the way, what area do you call home HCK?

Offline Honeycomb king

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #49 on: March 10, 2016, 01:26:06 am »
The kinglake ranges. When I get home that is. Our forage range is into nsw riverina to the north for canola in spring. West to the SA border for desert banksia in winter. North west to robinvale for almond pollination in august. Goulburn valley and yarra valley for pollination in spring. Then closer to home base for summer, say strathbogies through to the north east. Then any other direction and any distance when there is a chance of nectar and pollen somewhere. Some years I spend about 100 nights in a swag. It's a great job, but it's not for everyone.

Offline Lancej

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #50 on: March 11, 2016, 07:58:13 am »
That's a large area to cover HCK, it's been a while since I've seen some of that part of the country. Up to 100 nights sleeping on the ground, that's a bit of time in the bush, at least I can see why you know what's flowering.

Offline Honeycomb king

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #51 on: March 12, 2016, 08:49:09 am »
Not sure if I've mentioned this before but broad leaf peppermint (euc dives) is budding well for next spring. The timing of flowering is not yet clear, but not as late as this season. It's unreliable for nectar flow, but it's timing puts it flowering with blackberry and lots of other spring flowering plants. This tree is not a  variety i often go to but one I like to keep as a back up. Could also be a sign for next springs weather pattern but I'll just add that to the list and get back to you when I'm more confident with the forecast.

Offline Honeycomb king

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #52 on: March 13, 2016, 07:12:35 am »
Red gum buds for next season.  Good budding along the upper Goulburn.the buds seem to be of two distinct sizes, that is their early development was at 2 different weather events, ( anyway I won't bore you with that).what it all means is that it should be a short flowering with potential  for intense flow of nectar. At this stage I'll call it another  early flowering. Hopefully not as early as this year, and it starts about 1 week before December's full moon. I'll tell you all as I see it over the next few months.

An important and reliable  crop like this that buds over a 12 month period we will check out several times during its development.  Watching weather events and any potential development of conditions that would suit a pest etc." Never count the honey until it's turned into money". But always optimistic and preparing for seasons ahead.

Offline Lancej

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #53 on: March 14, 2016, 07:55:36 am »
Manna gums ( I think ) flowering still in central area around 700 to 800 metres, some trees are nearly finished, some are just started.

Offline Honeycomb king

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #54 on: March 14, 2016, 08:45:35 am »
Yeah, manna gum is holding back in the north east, 80m ish.Just starting but needs something to get it really going. Mountain swamp gum stopped with that rain but still has buds yet to open. General timing of flowering now seems to be getting closer to a normal time cycle (what ever that is).
Lance it looks like that rain has done the same to your manna by the look of that photo.

Was thinking of restarting this thread or something similar. Title?  Something about seasonal notes or similar.any suggestions?

Offline Flycaster

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #55 on: March 14, 2016, 08:50:07 pm »
Still waiting for the buds on the stringybarks here to open..... I keep looking everyday hoping to see a mass flowering but nothing yet 😒 Maybe they're just teasing.....

Offline Lancej

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #56 on: March 15, 2016, 05:37:15 am »
About the best i could come up with is "forecast flowering,  Victoria" or "flowering forecast,  Victoria"
HCK, do you know anything about cherry laurel,  l know that the leaves, timber and fruit stone contain cyanolipids, but I can find nothing about the flowers and extra floral necteries? Some bee sites promote this laurel for bees.
Some of the Manna gums are still flowering well, as you can see some aren't. That was the best photo I could take with my phone.  (There was a great tree next to the hives for a photo, but I wasn't going anywhere near my hives,  new queen coming next week)

Offline Honeycomb king

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #57 on: March 15, 2016, 07:27:27 pm »
Flycaster you may be looking at next seasons buds/flower.do you know what eucalyptus species it is and could you send a photo. If the buds are out with the fresh tips then they are for next season. Lots of eucs, and the stringy bark group is one bud for 12 to 18 month. Some times on the one branch you see 3 years of buds/flowers. At the moment there may be buds on the tips then back just past the fresh leaves there could be buds or flowers. They might only be 150mm to 300 mm apart. A photo of leaves, buds and bark would be good.

Lance that laurel is on a lot of bad list because of its toxins. But yes the bees love it. I don't have any data on it, but it's a Prunus Lauri tins? (Species name not correct but you'll find it on the web). Good nectar and pollen from all of the commercial grown prunus. Cherry, plum, apricot etc. Almonds too are a close relative. Although I've had bees work it it's been in garden type situation so lots of other floral sources. Although the leaves, fruit and seed can be toxic I don't know that the honey is. Try it, if we never here from you again then perhaps not such a good idea.
I hope that helps. I do have pollen protein data on other prunus variety.

Offline Flycaster

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #58 on: March 15, 2016, 10:01:01 pm »
I will try and get a photo tonight. 😀

Offline Flycaster

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Re: What's flowering: Victoria
« Reply #59 on: March 16, 2016, 06:41:54 am »
Hmmm cant seem to resize my photos to post them

 

anything