Nick Wallingford wrote:
>
> >    A few hives are now in feijoa, though it's bloom doesn't seem very
> > interesting to honeybees.  In a twenty minute observation yesterday, I saw
> > three wasps, three honeybees and one carpenter bee working feijoa bloom.
> > The carpenter bee was by far the most effective pollinator.  We used to
> > have a tiny solitary bee that worked feijoa intensely, though it seems to
> > be badly decimated, probably by pesticides on cotton.  The last year this
> > bee was abundant, was the last good feijoa crop.
>
> In NZ they've demonstrated pretty conclusively that it is bird
> pollination for the most part, which came as a surprise to me...
 
Nick I thought that the position is that we should encourage interprises
in the bee industry. Most know that bees don't pollinate feijoas, but
the oor orchardist that lies awake at night worrying about his/her crop
doesn't want to know that. Instead they would rather part with some
money to make them feel good, or at least doing as much as they can.
 
We should help these poor beekeepers that suffer from all the dieseases
known to man to make some more money.
 
Jon