Bees on Ivy Flow - Ivy Pollen - Ivy Honey - Save on Feeding

In this video, I'm going to show you the bees on an ivy flow. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Really quick video today. I just want to show you what the bees look like on an ivy flow. I'm going to show you some of the ivy just in case you don't know what the ivy looks like when it's in flower. Definitely don't go cutting your hedges if you see it in flower, but also what it looks like coming into the hive. It's a very distinctive pollen that comes into the hive, and it's just worthwhile knowing when the bees are on that ivy flow, because you can hold back from any 2:1 feeding while the bees are on the ivy. Now, ivy honey, believe it or not, you can actually get yourself a crop of ivy honey. Does kind of come at the time where you're doing your varroa treatments though, so you can't do it at the same time as Apivar. You might need to do an earlier treatment using maybe Apibioxyl or Max or something that's not going to taint the supers that are on. But if you live further down south and you get really good weather into September and October, I see people get a nice super of ivy honey, and it's a real acquired taste. I actually really like it. I think it's a very nice tasting honey. It sets in the frames like concrete though. Like, if you think oilseed rape sets in the frames, ivy honey sets like concrete. But the bees seem to do really well on it. It's very nutritious for them and they overwinter well on it. So if you see the bees on it, you should definitely encourage them And give them the opportunity to forage that before you feed. All I'm going to do in this video, I'm going to show you what the ivy plants look like, I'm going to show you what the pollen looks like coming into the hive and within the hive on the frames, and then you can identify what an ivy flow is as and when it happens.

So there we go, prime example. That is what you're looking for, really huge amounts of pollen. Look at that bee there, it can barely walk, and they're all like that.

You—

it's just amazing the amount that they bring in and the color of it. It's the only color pollen that's coming in this time of year, very, very yellow, slightly orangey even.

There you go, clear as you like. That is ivy pollen.

And then looking here in the frames as well, you can see you do get a little bit of variation from cell to cell, but all of this in here, all of this is pollen from the ivy plant. No other colors in there as well. Really good nutritious pollen for them.

And then without a doubt, all of that nectar as well, that's going to be ivy nectar. So it's very easy to see that the bees are on a good Ivy Flow here, and look what it's making them do. Look at this brood pattern, it is fantastic. So this is what ivy looks like when it's in flower. These closed-up buds here, that's it just getting ready to open up, and then when it's open, it looks like this one here. You can see the pollen on the plants, and you can see if I zoom out, it is literally covered in insects. Always find you get loads and loads of wasps on the ivy. There's just a lot of wasps around at this time of year. There's always loads of wasps, but the bees are definitely out finding the ivy nectar as well. So there you go, I told you it was going to be a short one. Ivy plants, really, really good source of food, of nectar and pollen late on in the year. If you see it happening, hold off on that 2:1 feeding. The pollen is so good for them building up early in the spring. It's just a really worthwhile plant to get to know, and to know when your bees are foraging on it. So I hope you enjoyed that video. I hope you found it useful. 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.