Laurence Edwards shows how Himalayan balsam creates unusually strong bee colonies through late-season nectar. Look for ghost bees: foragers dusted with white pollen stripes on their backs. The plant is invasive and illegal to grow, but beekeepers benefit from its abundant flow.
Today I'm going to show you how strong the colonies are on the Himalayan balsam. Hi, I'm Laurence Eders from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. I have been meaning to do this video for quite a while at this apiary, and the only reason we are at this apiary is because of the profusion of Himalayan balsam here. That is what led us here in the first place, and it turns out that this apiary is just Fantastic anyway without the Himalayan balsam. But I just wanted to do a video when the bees are on a really strong Himalayan balsam flow, show you what the bees look like coming in because you hear the term all the time, ghost bees. I want to show you how big, how strong the colonies are on the Himalayan balsam, and I'll pick out a few of the ghost bees as well just to show you what the bees look like when they've been foraging on the Himalayan balsam so you can maybe identify in your own hives. So. So I'm not going to go into too much detail on whether Himalayan balsam is a good or a bad plant. I think it's widely accepted that it is probably not the best plant in terms of biodiversity for close to waterways. However, where it does well, the bees do thrive on it, and you do get really, really strong colonies going into winter because it yields really late into the season, builds really nice big strong colonies. So I'll get inside the colony, I'll show you how strong it is, and I'll show you some of these ghost bees that prove The colony is foraging on the Himalayan balsam. So every single colony in this apiary at the moment is just all over the Himalayan balsam. I'll throw up a few pictures now just to show you what Himalayan balsam looks like. I think it's a really attractive looking plant. It does do a lot of damage to waterways though, so you see people going around bashing it, knocking it down, that's what it's called. I'm not against that at all, but I'm quite happy for my bees to go and forage it. But if people want to go and bash it down, take it down, I've no problem with that whatsoever. Just want to make that clear in this video. I'm not encouraging anyone to go and plant it anywhere. That is actually an illegal activity, so don't go and plant it anywhere at all. Criminal offense. But you can take your bees to it, let the bees use the resources. At least you're getting something positive out of it. But in terms of the plant, I do think it's a magnificent plant, and the mechanics of the plant as well I find really, really incredible. I don't encourage you again to do this, but if you watch some videos on it, The way the seed pods work is they build up all of this tension in them and then any movement and they disperse the seeds. And apparently they can go up to 7 meters in any direction, these seeds. So you can just see how it spreads so quickly because it builds up the seed pods, chucks them out, and disperses around 7 meters in any direction. And then because it's on a waterway and the seeds are buoyant and they float, they just go all the way downstream and then wherever they settle, they create a new bed of Himalayan balsam. But I think you'll agree they do look quite nice, the plants, and the bees certainly enjoy them as well. So I'm going to take a look in this colony. I'm just going to find you some of these ghost bees because it gives you the indication, the one you're looking for, to show you that your bees have found the Himalayan balsam. You can go and take the honey away, you can get the honey tested, but if you're seeing bees in your colonies with these distinctive white stripes on their back called ghost bees, then they've definitely found the Himalayan balsam. And if you're close to it on a good warm day, you will see hundreds, if not thousands, of bees coming back covered in white pollen all over every single frame. So I'll get inside in now, dig out a few frames, and I'll show you some of these ghost bees. So here you go, you can see the white strips across the back of the bees, and it is the biggest giveaway in the world. You don't often get that many flowers where it's a guaranteed giveaway that the bees have been foraging on a specific flower. Obviously other colour pollens you can identify from the bees putting on the back of their legs in their baskets, but Himalayan balsam is just the easiest giveaway in the world. They come back just dusted in white, big white stripe on the back that they get from going deep down into the Himalayan balsam flower. They go and retrieve that nectar and get a big white stripe on the way back out. And there we go, that's what ghost bees foraging on Himalayan balsam look like. These guys are angry today, don't know why, just got them at a wrong time it seems because they are really going for me. Generally not too bad a colony, these ones. So we've probably come to a bit of an abrupt flow around here. It's about half 6 in the evening as well now, they're thinking, why are you opening me up so late? In terms of ghost bees, really, really easy to identify. If you see them in your colony, do you like it? Do you not like it? Stick it on the comment below. Tell me if you're a Himalayan balsam fan or if you want to eradicate it so it doesn't exist anymore. Hope you found that video useful though. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time. Bye.
