I've seen similar in New York apples, after it was shown that much of the cross-pollination occurring happens at the hive entrance. This led us to place the hives in larger drops in bin loading areas rather than smaller drops scattered throughout the orchard. Like 20 in a drop rather than two every seven trees, etc.
Wooden inserts reduced the entrance. Apple pollen...a pollinator variety...was poured into the entrance and the bees walked through it. The pollen was trapped pollen and not shaken from blossoms. I haven't pollinated apples in nearly 20 years, and I don't know if the orchard still practices this.
>I've seen this process in CA almonds (2006-2010). The harvested pollen was dispersed by pollen tray inserts into the entrances, forcing bees to walk through the harvested pollen.
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