Pollination
We are currently taking reservations for 2009 spring pollination in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. If your an organic farmer email us for your reservation today.
Please be aware we will not bring our bees to any field or neighboring field spraying The Bayer Company's imidachloprid
based products. For a list of these brand names click here and more information. Organic farmers are given priority and no-spray farms secondary priority. Bee are in short supply this year.
The Cost of Pollination Increases
Several factors have been playing into the the rising cost of pollination. The first needs no explanation. The rising cost of fuel and getting the bees to the crops. The second is the increasing number of almonds trees in production. The current California almond crop requires about 1,300,000 hives of bees to pollinate them. The number of managed hives in California has dropped to around 400,000 hives. This is due largely to Colony Collapse Disorder which has taken a huge toll on the industry and leaves an uncertain future. These challenges have forced beekeepers to increase their pollination prices. Beekeepers received $121.9 million in 2005 for supplying bees to pollinate more than 50 varieties of orchard and field crops. Today that number has risen to $
Pollination
Good pollination is essential to the production of most fruit, vegetable and seed crops. Both yield and quality of the fruit/seed are dependent upon the intensity of pollination. Twenty-one additional California fruit and nut crops are known to produce larger yields when pollinated by honey bees. However, efforts to insure good pollination are often not given sufficient attention, especially during the hectic spring season. Obtaining good pollination is not difficult, this is where the knowledgeable beekeeper comes in.
A Few Things to Consider About Pollination
- Bee colonies must be moved into pear orchards when trees are 30 to 50% in bloom. Due to low sugar content in the pear nectar, the blossoms are not very attractive to honeybees. However, if the trees are well into bloom, they will work the blossoms for a period until they find a more attractive source of nectar. If there is only a small amount of bloom, they will start working more attractive sources almost immediately.
- All apple varieties should be considered self-unfruitful; therefore, cannot effectively pollinate themselves. Even such so-called "self-fruitful" varieties as Golden Delicious, Rome, Wealthy, Baldwin and Jonathan, etc, need another variety nearby to serve as a pollen source (pollinizer) to set consistent crops. No apple variety is sufficiently self-fruitful to be dependably productive when planted alone.
- With sweet cherries, move bee colonies in a day or two before the first blossoms open. The flowers have a short period of viability. Sweet cherries must be pollinated quickly. If bees are one day late, the crop can be reduced considerably.
- If dandelion bloom is heavy, mow days before bees are placed. Heavy bloom is competition for the apple bloom. Light dandelion bloom will just help feed the bees.
- With ample pollination, the grower may also be able to set his blooms before frost can damage them, set his crop before insects attack, and harvest ahead of inclement weather. Earliness of set is an often overlooked but important phase in the crop economy.
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