Larry,
I have heard that honeybees don't really actually transfer pollen from one blueberry flower to another. They can't actually get inside the flower. That's how I understand it anyway. But something is going on, maybe increased native pollinator competition? I had a grower show me holes in the sides of blueberry flowers where, according to him, bumblebees had chewed a hole in the flower.

I haven't heard a plausible explanation about what is going on when honeybees are on blueberries. All I know is that when they aren't there crops are crappy. Even when bumblebee colonies are brought in. If honeybees aren't there, like I wrote before, crappy fruit set.

So, whereas native pollinators may be better suited to pollinate certain fruit or vegetable flowers, there is something besides increased numbers that make supplemental pollination in the form of managed colonies of honeybees what works, completes the pollination, results in better fruit set.

I believe that it isn't true that w/out bees 1/3 or 2/3 of our fruits and vegetable would disappear from the grocery store, but that what did get to our produce shelves would not be fully formed and not appealing to the eye. Maybe I am wrong.

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