>So apple production reports don't show a big drop over last year. I'm not too
>surprised. I'm sure most of the apples being counted are from large
>producer who are in a position to see to it that the apples are
>pollinated, by renting bees. Rents may go up, but they will do what
>they have to do.
Hello Kevin,
Yes, they are the apples that go into commerce, you can be sure they
were not all from big farms and many were produced without benefit of
renting bees.
Some here should have been washed better before being pressed into
natural apple juice, that naturally made some people deathly sick and
are causing sales of all apple products to take a dive with a new
apple slogan "An Apple Today Can Flush Your Life Away". Could not
be at a more sensitive time as apple juice is a natural during the
holiday season. Looks excellent for pure Cranberry juice and Squash
pies this year...
I am not as sure as some are that pollination rents drive bee numbers.
It would seem that with fair pollination rents and good honey prices
that we are experiencing today there would be much more activity by
beekeepers dramatically increasing their numbers. Maybe there will be,
but it is not or has not happened yet as far as I can find out talking
with the equipment suppliers which have been going down hill here for
years. To confuse the bee pollination picture today here in California
that depends on a thousand truck loads from out of state beekeepers
there are reports that many are not coming back this next spring or
are reducing the numbers they intend to bring and are instead heading
south for greener pastures and lower production costs.
I also suspect that most experienced beekeepers recognize that we may
have reached the limits of good seasonal bee pasturage needed for our
bees when they are not pollinating and are not going to increase that
much.
>The back yard trees may be a very different story. We have spent the summer
>looking to buy property a bit more "out in the country" than we are
>now. In every case, where there were apple trees there were
>essentially no apples. I often asked about the lack of apples. The
>usual response was that there had been a freeze. Well, I had the same
>weather they had and I have apples, and of course, bees. I know this
>is purely anecdotal, but I saw it at least half a dozen times.
If honeybees were the only pollinator of the casual apple orchard or
apple tree it would be easier to say the apples failed because of the
lack of honeybees, but I am told that there are many other pollinators
such as the Blue Orchard bee that are as good or better doing it to the
apple flowers then honeybees, so they say.
>To be fair, I should mention that I started keeping bees 5 years ago because n
>bees visited my apple trees and I got very few apples. This may not be
>a new situation
Now you are on track, but I am not saying that crops are not suffering
because of the lack of bee populations, as the facts are there to see,
apple production is down in most of the apple producing states, and
for those who got no apples it is a disaster, same as the beekeeper who
for what ever reason has lost his bees in spite of the good care he gave
them. What I am saying is that in spite of all the hype we give to our
problems some are prospering to spite us all and we need to spend more
time studying what they may be doing that is different then what we
have done and not join the Flat Earth Society because a few fell out
of the old apple tree.
ttul Andy-
Los Banos, Ca
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~ QMPro 1.53 ~ ... Nor will a bee buzz round two swelling peaches,
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