Evidence of the effect of the spring comes from the impact on our fruit trees.  Virtually all the plums, damsons, greengages, quince and cherries have little or no fruit; of course, they flowered early.  The apples fared a bit better but the medlar - which flowers last - is loaded.
Soft fruit - raspberries, loganberries, youngberries, gooseberries and currants (red/white/black) are looking really good, but they are mainly pollinated by bumble bees or in the case of the gooseberries by solitaries.

Went round a number of apiaries yesterday just to make sure that none were starving.  I was a bit worried about nucs that we installed to replace winter losses, but they all appear to be holding their own.  Rain soon (there is none in sight for the next 10 days!) might enable to colonies to build on clover and blackberry and would give them a better chance for next winter; if that fails then we will have some very old bees by the autumn.

Best wishes

Peter 
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

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