Honey
bees perform a vital function in the pollination of agricultural
crops, home gardens, orchards and wildlife habitats. As bees travel
from blossom to blossom in search of nectar, they transfer pollen
from plant to plant, thus fertilizing the plants and enabling them
to bear fruit bearing seed. Naturally Sweet
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The honey bee is practically the only pollinating insect
of economic importance on almonds, and growers throughout the world have
been urged to use them. The magnitude of a heavy honey bee population
cannot be overemphasized.
Almond blossoming occurs when days are short and cool and other pollinators
are absent in the orchards. Although only 1 grain of pollen is theoretically
necessary to set an almond fruit, the pollen must come from another compatible
cultivars to produce fertilization. Bees often visit scores of blossoms
on a tree before moving to another.
When nectar is plentiful it is still necessary that maximum transfer of the pollen between appropriate trees for fertilization occur. This calls for heavy bee concentration on the trees. Most almond growers recognize that cross pollination by bees is essential and they make an attempt to provide this service to the blossoms. Frequently too few colonies are obtained and are not sufficient enough to distribute the bees in orchards for maximum efficiency to cover all blossoms and that's were we can assist growers to properly place hives throughout the orchards to supply the maximum coverage for your crops. |
