The major blueberry crop in Maine is low bush (wild) blueberries. Some of
the other comments on the list are actually about high bush blueberries and
they are different.

Honeybees have a difficult time getting into the low bush flowers and if
you look at some who have been pollinating for a while they are
hairless.They literally wear off their body hair squeezing into the
flowers.I was allowed to go with Tony Jadczak when he inspected commercial
hives on the blueberry barrens (and got a nice article from it which was
published by Kim). So I have seen the hairless bees.

Add insult to injury, they get little nectar and can come off low bush
blueberries lighter than when they go in. Commercial blueberry pollinators
usually go somewhere else after pollinating low bush blueberries to
strengthen their colonies with a good nectar source like raspberries.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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