This week we supplied 6 beehives to a blueberry farm to pollinate the flowers and ensure a crop of berries. Blueberry plants will not produce fruit without honeybees to spread pollen from flower to flower, so the hives are vital. Our bees have helped this farmer to produce large crops of organic blueberries for many years. The bees work on the flowers for about 5 weeks and are then moved to a eucalyptus forest to collect nectar to produce honey.
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One response to “Pollination hives”
Hi guys, isn’t it strange how undervalued the pollination services are. The beekeeper is almost providing this I think as a goodwill task to orchardists, as even though it is a fee paying service, the honey that is consumed within the hive during the weeks of pollination can equal what is paid by the hirer. And this doesn’t take into account the opportunity to have the hives on early spring flows of yellow gum or early yellow box which is currently flowering in western Victoria. The bees simply don’t collect honey when on most pollination jobs.
And then you have the hazard of pesticides on surrounding orchards, even though the hirer abides by the agreed terms and doesn’t spray whilst the bees are active, surrounding farms are not so aware of the job the bees are doing. I lost 3 qof 5 hives last pollination job I did thru sprays, so won’t be rushing back into pollination services too quick.
Thanks for the blog, keep them coming.