In the current issue of Growing Edge magazine (March/April 2000), a team of
freelance reporters report on growing cranberries in Washington state. In one
section they describe the growth of a need for bees for pollination:

   We had noticed several stacks of beehives along the edges of the bogs.
Most of the local cranberry farmers rent hives from a commercial beekeeper in
Moses Lake, WA, for $38 per hive during the pollination season, which lasts
about six weeks. The Ericksons estimate that each hive contains a colony of
between 10,000 and 30,000 honeybees.
   Traditionally, bumblebees are the natural pollinators of the bog, but
their population has dwindled to the point where honeybees must be imported
to supplement their efforts. One probably cause for this problem is a decline
in the bees' habitat. Gradually, cranberry bogs have been replacing the areas
where bumblebees used to live.