pollination
Bee Power: A Natural Way to Enhance Your Farm
Bee pollination occurs when bees transfer pollen from flower to flower while collecting nectar. This fertilizes plants and enables them to produce fruit and seeds. This process is essential for making orchards and fields more productive and profitable, benefiting pollinators and farmers.
More bee visits lead to better crop yields, larger fruits, and higher-quality produce. A higher concentration of bees ensures fertilization of early blossoms, resulting in more uniform crops. With increased bee activity, your fields will see larger, more consistent harvests and higher yields per acre, ultimately boosting your earnings.
In short, supporting bee populations supports the ecosystem and directly enhances your farm’s productivity, leading to better harvests and greater profits.
While local wild populations of honeybees and other native pollinators contribute to crop pollination, they can't be relied upon consistently from year to year. These populations fluctuate due to factors like weather, habitat loss or destruction, pesticide use, and the impact of parasitic mite infestations. When determining the number of hives per acre, growers must consider the number of flowers per acre. For optimal pollination and higher-quality fruits and vegetables, it's essential to hire a beekeeper. Strategically placed hives in the orchard or field can help ensure a stable income for farmers year after year.
Pollination Recommendations
Many crops rely on honeybees to transfer pollen, which is essential for proper seed set and the development of quality fruit around those seeds. Below is a grid showing the pollination hive stocking rates for your type of crop.
Hive Stocking Rates
1 HIVE PER ACRE
FIELD CROPS
Alfalfa
Buckwheat
Canola
Clovers
Cucumbers
Ginseng
Melons
Pumpkins
Squash
Trefoil
Zucchini
Standard Apples
Apricots
Cherries
Nectarines
Pears
Plums
Peaches
Raspberries
Strawberries
FRUIT CROPS
2 HIVE PER ACRE
FRUIT CROPS
Semi-Dwarf Apples
Dwarf Apples
Blueberries
Cranberries
3 HIVE PER ACRE
FRUIT CROPS
The Effectiveness of Pollination
The effectiveness of bees depends on the number of visits they make between compatible varieties within an orchard or field. If their visits are limited to just one variety, the pollination process is less effective.
To achieve the best seed set, repeated cross-pollination is necessary. In fact, studies have shown that some cross-pollination occurs within the hive itself! When bees come into contact with each other, pollen grains are transferred from the body hairs of one bee to another. Even if a bee returns to the same variety of trees, the process still results in cross-pollination.
moving colonies of bees
Moving beehives is often necessary during cold and wet spring weather to ensure that the bees are in the right location for effective pollination.
Hives must be placed early enough to help pollinate the first blossoms of fruit, as timely pollination is critical for optimal crop yields. Since weather conditions can be unpredictable, beekeepers must plan ahead and know the pollination schedule in advance. This allows them to move the hives at the right time and ensure the bees are ready to work when the crops begin to bloom. Early hive placement also maximizes the chances of successful pollination, as bees need to be active during the critical early stages of flowering to ensure the flowers are fertilized properly. This careful coordination is key for both beekeepers and farmers to achieve the best possible harvest.
in the hive
The Queen Bee:
Queen bees are the reproductive females in a colony, responsible for laying thousands of eggs each day. During peak season, a queen bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day! Imagine if a chicken could do the same! Queen bees are larger than worker bees and play a crucial role in the colony's survival by ensuring the production of new bees. They can live for several years, maintaining the colony's growth and continuity.
The Worker Bees:
Worker bees are female bees that do all the hard work in the colony. The average lifespan of a worker bee during the busy season is about six weeks, unless it stings something before then. For the first three weeks, they work inside the hive, caring for the queen and larvae. For the next three weeks, the workers go outside the hive to collect pollen and nectar. It takes 556 worker bees to gather a full pound of honey, and each bee would have to fly more than once around the world to do this! Worker bees are crucial for the colony's survival and productivity.
How Bees Collect Nectar & Make Honey
Bees collect nectar from flowers using their long, tube-like tongues. They store the nectar in a special "honey stomach." Once back in the hive, the bees pass the nectar to other worker bees, who chew it to break down the sugars. The nectar is then spread in honeycomb cells, where bees fan it with their wings to evaporate excess moisture. Nectar contains about 70% water, while honey contains only 17%. The bees' fanning helps remove the extra moisture, turning the nectar into thick, sweet honey.
a bit of our history
Around the year 2007, we began pollinating for a few farmers using an old Chevy pick-up,
a small trailer & dolly. A newer Dodge truck replaced the old one, and eventually, we built a boom on the trailer to make lifting an easier task. We recently upgraded to a bigger Dodge truck with a powerful Ezyloader to handle more heavy hives with "ease".
Don't Spray the Bees!
Bee poisoning caused by field and orchard sprays is a major concern for beekeepers. While farmers rely on bees for pollination, chemical exposure can quickly reduce bee populations. This shortage not only harms beekeepers but also farmers who depend on bees to pollinate their crops. Spraying insecticides during bloom is a violation of the Bees Act and should be avoided at all costs!
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