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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 78, Issue 73

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  • From: Neil Lewis <lewisn@georgetown.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 78, Issue 73
  • Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:06:25 -0400

Re: Honey bee question

Are you sure your honeybees are at all interested in blueberries? I have never seen a honeybee on mine, and I have three hives about 5 feet away from them. Rather, they seem to attract bumblebees. Blackberries are attractive to honeybees. I believe the reason honeybees are successful in pollinating commercial fields of blueberries is because that is all they have to eat there: they must work the blueberries or starve. Generally early in the spring and summer honeybees will focus on things like black locust, tulip poplar (at least here in MD) and ignore everything else.

Regarding moving hives into a caged plot of blueberries, there is a saying in beekeeping that you either move a hive 2 feet or 2 miles. Otherwise returning bees will get lost.

A cage around blueberries is a good idea, but to keep birds out, not insects.

Neil Lewis

Is it possible to put a honeybee hive inside the enclosure during bloom?

I think this is sometimes done for crops requiring insect pollination when cross-pollination is not desired because the seed of the particular variety is to be saved, but the area from which seed is to be saved is small enough to cover but large enough for the bees to be OK inside it for a couple of weeks.

If you don't keep bees yourself, a local beekeeper might be willing to do this for you, possibly in exchange for either cash or berries.

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly
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End of nafex Digest, Vol 78, Issue 73
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  • Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 78, Issue 73, Neil Lewis, 07/31/2009

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