The May gap?

Yesterday was quite a pleasant day, between the showers. I took the chance to take a brood frame from my hive number two and give it to the queenless colony in hive number three. Just after I opened up hive number two the rain came on so my choice of frame and it's removal were a lot more hasty than I would have liked, but I did manage to select a frame with eggs, larvae of all ages and even some sealed and emerging brood. I just hope that in my haste I the queen in hive number two did not come to any harm...

Anyway the bees in hive number three now have a chance to rear a new queen. They have been hopelessly queenless for about 6 weeks, ever since I killed the drone laying queen that was in the colony. I hope they manage to rear a queen and get her mated, but really their chances of success depend much upon the weather, which brings me on to the main subject of this post - forage.

It has been yet another unusual start to the year. We seem to no longer have clearly defined seasons thanks I'm sure at least in part to global warming and climate instability. There were a few very warm days at the end of  March, but since then the weather has been very mixed, and now in mid May is more like March again!

Beekeepers talk about the "June Gap" - the natural period after the Spring nectar flow but before the main Summer flow when nectar can be in very short supply and bees may need feeding. This year, because of the strange weather, I think we may be in danger of having a "May gap" because the normal Spring flow just has not got going yet! Therefore I decided to have a wander around farm to see what forage was available close to my apiary. In no particular order, here is what I found...

Current bushes in the garden, just finished flowering. There was still the odd bee buzzing around these bushes but as far as I could see they had finished flowering.

Hawthorne (also known as "May Blossom") just about to start flowering. I have loads of this around the farm, but to be of much value as a source of nectar it needs to be warm, and it is very prone to being "washed out" by rain.

Bluebells in full flower in the garden and under the trees. A few bees were showing an interest in them but I really don't have enough Bluebells for them to be a significant source of forage.

Soft fruit bushes (mainly Apple and Plum) nearly finished flowering in and around the garden.

Sycamore trees flowering and just starting to come into leaf.

Ash trees in flower, but leaf buds still unopened.

I also saw a few butterflies including this Small Tortoiseshell...

and this Speckled Wood.

And I saw a large Bumblebee feeding on some Forget-me-not flowers.

So there is some forage around for the bees, but unless the weather warms up a bit the bees are unlikely to be able to take much advantage of it. The weather forecast for the week ahead is not good - still cool and showery, so I've given all my colonies some light syrup to keep them going.

Hopefully we'll get some more seasonal weather soon!