Blueberries need plenty of TLC to produce their much-loved fruit. To produce big, juicy fruit, they need good pollination. For each berry to develop, a blueberry flower requires at least 10 visits from a honeybee.
Continue reading “How to master blueberry pollination – Part I”Want better crop pollination? Consider insulated hives
Home is where the best insulation is, according to honeybees. And almost like Goldilocks, bees like the temperature inside their hive to be just right. Too cold and the larvae don’t develop normally. Too hot and the brood suffers high mortality. Both situations are detrimental to the overall strength of the hive and, consequently, the bees’ ability to pollinate crops.
Continue reading “Want better crop pollination? Consider insulated hives”How and why do honeybees pollinate flowers?
When you watch honeybees at work, visiting flowers from dawn to dusk, it’s easy to assume that pollinating flowers is their job — a job they seem very keen to do. The truth is, honeybees have no innate desire to pollinate flowers; they are really just out for themselves gathering resources from flowers with no idea that they are pollinating them. Yet, honeybees are the most prolific pollinators on the planet. They are not only responsible for pollinating thousands of naturally occurring plant species around the world, but also ensuring that crops (with an estimated annual yield value of between $235 to $577 billion) are pollinated every year. But, how can honeybees be such great pollinators if they have no desire to be good at it?Continue reading “How and why do honeybees pollinate flowers?”
