Bee industry and horticultural interests are meeting in Auckland on Tuesday to discuss a research strategy to ensure the survival of honey bees and the pollination services they provide.
British apples and pears are under threat because of a dramatic decline in honeybee numbers, experts have warned.
For 3,000 years, farmers in China’s Sichuan province pollinated their fruit trees the old-fashioned way: they let the bees do it. Flowers produce nectar that attracts bees, which inadvertently transfer sticky grains of pollen from one flower to another, fertilizing them so they bear fruit. When China rapidly expanded its pear orchards in the 1980s, it stepped up its use of pesticides, and this age-old system of pollination began to unravel.
Oregon State University researchers hope that a fluorescent dye can attract more native bumblebees to farm fields to replace declining honeybees and boost the numbers of an insect essential to agriculture.
Pollination of berry crops is taking place right now, however, a growing number of fields – and a decreasing number of bees – spells a bad year for berries, officials fear.
It could be a dark year for local blueberry growers, as bee populations continue to diminish at an unprecedented rate.
After an entomologist dug it up from its comfy underground home overlooking a cherry orchard, the longhorn bee was placed in a tiny glass vial and passed among a crowd of curious onlookers. To the orchardists, university extension agents and others in attendance, the sleepy insect was proof that a patch of bare soil on a scraggly hillside could serve a worthwhile purpose: as a home for native pollinators.
After an entomologist dug it up from its comfy underground home overlooking a cherry orchard, the longhorn bee was placed in a tiny glass vial and passed among a crowd of curious onlookers. To the orchardists, university extension agents and others in attendance, the sleepy insect was proof that a patch of bare soil on a scraggly hillside could serve a worthwhile purpose: as a home for native pollinators.
Colonies of honeybees died across the region this winter, a year after the first national reports of a mysterious bee-killing phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder.
Almond Pollination Exposed Vulnerabilities, and Resilience in Bee Colonies
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