As I was walking past a mature ivy plant I heard an immense buzzing. The flowers of the ivy are just beginning to open and the ivy was covered in lots of honey bees working with their usual industry collecting nectar. In late Summer and early Autumn, before the weather turns cold, ivy is an important food source for bees. They need to ensure that they have enough honey reserves to see the colony through the Winter and other food sources are rapidly depleting.
I was a bit late harvesting honey so I was quite conservative in how much I took this year. As we are currently down to one colony this only amounted to four full frames of capped honey. From these I extracted a modest 6lbs of honey. The bees have a full super still to draw upon.
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| A 1lb jar of 2022 honey |
When I read this, I thought "Ivy flowers?" Then put it from my mind. But yesterday I happened to be walking past an ivy and I checked for the bloom, and yes indeed! (No bees where I was though.) Enjoy your honey - even more as there is less of it this year!
ReplyDeleteWhen ivy reaches the top of whatever it is climbing up it will start flowering and the leaves change to a more oval shape.
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