When does the blackberry flow start in Tasmania?
Anywhere from mid-November to January, depending on how warm the season is and how high and cool your ground is — but nobody can yet put a firm date on it for any one apiary, and you can help change that.
This page used to give a single date and a growing degree day figure for the start of the blackberry flow. Both rested on one flow, logged in one season at one apiary in north-west Tasmania, so we have taken them down until there is enough data behind them to be worth trusting.
Mid-November to January
If blackberry starts at the same warmth each year, sixteen seasons of weather at that one low-lying apiary put the start anywhere from about 19 November in a warm season to 20 December in a cool one — a month apart at a single site. Across Tasmania the spread is wider still: higher, cooler ground could be weeks later, well into January, and warmer spots may start earlier. A date from the calendar can be weeks out either way; the season's warmth so far, at your own site, narrows it down.
That spread is why Nectarcast exists: it tracks this season's warmth at your own site and shows a window for each flow that narrows as the season goes on. The more Tasmanian beekeepers who log the day blackberry starts at their own sites, across more seasons and more ground, the better Nectarcast can predict the flow for every apiary nearby — yours included.
It is free while in development, and free for life for anyone who joins now.