permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <london@sunsite.unc.edu>]

http://sunSITE.unc.edu/london   InterGarden   
london@sunSITE.unc.edu   llondon@bellsouth.net
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 06:54:27 +0000
From: Tom Hodges <hodges@usa.net>
To: sustag-l@listproc.wsu.edu
Subject: Almonds are in Blossom

From: Pollinator <Pollinator@aol.com> 
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 22:01:02 EST
Subject: Almonds are in Blossom

POLLINATION  -  CENTURY 21 STYLE

    Almonds are in bloom.

   About one third of all kept US honeybees have been trucked to
   California
for the largest planned pollination event in the world. Nearly a
million hives have been hauled into almond orchards to get those bees
working early. Each year more almonds are planted and soon the demand
will surpass a million hives.

   The past few years have seen the loss of almost all wild honeybees,
   and
kept hives have been cut by about half to around 3 million hives in
the US. At the same time wild pollinators, such as bumblebees, orchard
mason bees and leafcutter bees have been declining due to pesticide
misuse, loss of habitat (suburban development, clearcut logging,
changing farm practices) and general environmental degradation.

   But fruit and vegetable crop yields have remained high, and even
   increased
in some cases, because more and more beekeepers have become migratory,
doing much more with less.   

   Last fall, hundreds of tractor trailers of bees were moved to
   California
from Washington, Oregon, Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota and other
northern states. Their primary reason was to be ready for almonds,
though they were moved in the fall to also take advantage of the
milder winter in California.

   Last month bees started arriving from Texas, Louisiana and other
   Gulf
Coast states, even as far as Florida. 

   Much of the unloading is done by night, with forklifts to handle
   the hives
in pallets of four. This year has been "mudville" due to the heavy
rains of El Nino. In some cases, it has been impossible to get the
bees directly into the orchards and they have had to settle for higher
sites along the margins. In other places big tractors and even
bulldozers are used to pull the trucks through the mud.

   These strange midnight "cowboys" can be found in the coffee shops
   at
daybreak in the almond country, coated with mud and dead tired.
Beekeeping is not an easy life, and many beekeepers are known as
"rugged individualists" or as "independent SOB's" depending on your
perspective. But this almond crop, and other major US crops, totalling
about ten billion dollars worth of produce, depend on these hard
working guys.

   As soon as the trucks are unloaded, the bees are given a gallon or
   two of
high fructose corn syrup to stimulate the queen to lay more eggs. Bees
that have a lot of babies to feed are better pollinators, because the
brood requires protein-rich pollen. This means more workers will be
going to deliberately gather pollen, rather than nectar. A nectar
gathering bee will accomplish some pollination, but a pollen gathering
bee will be about ten times more effective as a pollinator.

   Theft is a major problem, especially when there is a shortage, and
   most of
the beekeepers stay as close as possible to their bees. Whole
truckloads of bees have been known to disappear in one night.
Beekeepers have been known to keep the bees in the most junky possible
equipment so as to make them unattractive to thieves.  Humans and
other creatures also can steal the syrup pails, as soon as the
beekeeper's back is turned.

   After almonds, many will be moving northward to the Yakima valley
   of
Washington, and other apple growing sites. In recent years, some of
the Florida truckloads of bees moved clear across the country again,
to upstate NY for apples, then to Maine for blueberries, then to
Michigan for pickle cucumbers, before returning to Florida for the
winter.

   Commercial beekeeping today is not about honey, so much as for
pollination. Growers have to pay the beekeepers to get bees; they
would not come unless they were paid, since most pollination crops
yield little honey. Alfalfa, one of the few honey producing
pollination crops, are stocked so heavily to maximize pollination,
that there are too many hives to produce significant honey.  This is
another reason why growers must pay for the beekeeper service.

   Pollination contracts account for the largest share of commercial
beekeepers income today. Bees are moved to crops that are honey
sources (like clover) to supplement the pollination business.

   The business is not without hazards. Last year California
   authorities
destroyed a tractor-trailer load of bees from the southeast, because
fire ants were found in some dirt in the bottom of the pallets.  If a
truck wrecks or breaks down in a populated area, panicky authorities
may destroy the load. They don't think about the fact that the $40,000
worth of bees may be going to pollinate a million dollars worth of
fruit or nuts.

   This kind of loss can sink a beekeeper, and there are only about
   1600
commercial beekeepers left in the US. Insurance companies will provide
cargo insurance for the beehives, but not for the bees, as it is just
too risky. On a hot day, bees can die simply because the truck is
caught in a traffic jam and cannot keep air moving to the bees.  A
chain reaction is started. The bees become overheated and become
agitated, which creates more heat, which makes them still more
agitated.  In some cases the honeycomb literally melts down, killing
brood and usually the hive as well.

    A lot of bees used to be trucked in refrigerated trucks, which
    works
better than open netted loads, as long as the reefer is able to keep
up with the heat production capacity of the bees. But too many reefers
failed and few are trucked this way today.

   A friend of mine experienced a reefer failure about ten years ago.
   When he
opened the back doors, all the bees were clinging to the walls and
ceiling. The queens from various hives were intermingled and all the
brood in the hives was dead.

   To salvage them, he set out the hives, and put a scoop shovel of
   bees into
each hive. Then he ordered 500 queens from a queen producer, which
were hand delivered for speed. By that time, some of the bees had
totally drifted out of some hives, but he tried again to equalize the
bees, and added a queen to each.

   He was finally able to salvage about half the hives, but they were
   too
weak to do any pollination or honey production for that season. The
trucker's cargo insurance refused to pay anything; they had a clause
in the fine print.

   Gardeners who fervently hope for a commercial beekeeper to be
   nearby, will
not likely see honeybees in the spring. Most commercial bees will be
in orchards for paid pollination.  But later in the season, the bees
may be spread around in "bee yards" of 40 or 50 hives, to make some
honey. If one of these is nearby, you'll be guaranteed good
pollination for your later garden, ie. cukes, melons, squash and
pumpkins.

    For apples and other home fruit, you might be able to strike a
    deal with
a beekeeper to provide him or her a site for a bee yard, in exchange
for a promise to leave one or two hives there during the spring fruit
bloom. Most of the bees, of course will come in later. And, of course,
this only works for folks who have a little acreage. To avoid
community problems (kids especially), bee yards should be somewhat
isolated and hidden.

   More and more gardeners are finding that they cannot rely on other
beekeepers, so they are getting a hive or two of their own. Call your
local extension office to see if they or a local bee association are
offering training courses for new beekeepers. If they are not, jack
them up, because they should be.

   Other gardeners are putting up mason bee homes, which are simple
   drilled
wooden blocks, which are used by these solitary bee females for
nesting sites. Stingless mason bees are excellent fruit pollinators,
but not for garden veggies, because they go dormant after the spring.

   Bumblebee culture is also a booming business, but so far is so
   expensive
that it is mostly used for greenhouse production of tomatoes, peppers,
strawberries, etc. Costs run around $200-300 for a colony of 50-100
bees.  A visit by a bumblebee on your cuke blossom is worth about
three visits by a honeybee, because the bumbler is so much more brawny
and fuzzy. Bumblebees are poor for fruit, because their populations
are very small early in the season. They are great pollinators for
vegetables or very late blooming fruit, when their colonies are
established.

   One third of our food supply must have bees. Many gardeners don't
   realize
that pollination is not an "on or off" thing. One bee going to a
flower is not usually sufficient to make a quality fruit. Many flowers
require 15 or 20 visits to make perfect fruit. Each time the bees
come, they rub against the sticky pistil and smear on more pollen
grains. A watermelon blossom requires about 1000 grains of pollen,
evenly spread across the three lobes of the pistil. 

   When you look at a sliced melon, regard the seeds. Each white,
unpollinated seed represents potential that is not realized. If there
are many white seeds, the fruit will never attain full size and
sweetness. How many times have you been disappointed when you tasted a
poorly pollinated melon?  Knotty or curled cukes, flat-tasting
cantaloupes, small lopsided apples and many other fruits and veggies
tell the tale of growers who assumed that wild pollinators would be
sufficient, and they weren't. Nowadays pollination must be managed,
just the same as fertility, pest control and other aspect of growing
fruits and vegetables.


FOR MORE INFO:

The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

Pollination for the Home Gardener, by Howard Veatch:   Booklet
Published by Dadant and Sons, Inc. Hamilton, IL  6234.  Most of this
is available by permission on the Pollination web page above. May be
out of print.

Pacific Nut Grower:  A useful magazine about nuts, that has articles
and advertisements on pollination, particularly in the spring issues.
$25/yr   PO Box  626, Clovis, CA   93613-0626

Forgotton Pollinators Campaign, a group focusing on the growing
environmental problem of the loss of our domestic and wild
pollinators, and the risk to our food supply, of pursuing policies
that damage or destroy them. http://www.desert.net/museum/fp/fp1.html
  Their theme book The Forgotton Pollinators, written by Stephen L.
  Buchmann
and Gary Paul Nabhan and published by Island Press is available at
their web site.

Following the Bloom, a fascinating book about migratory beekeeping, by
Douglas Whynott, a reporter who travels with the beekeepers. Stackpole
Books, PO Box 1831, Harrisburg, PA.   May be out of print, but
available through Wicwas Press, $20 plus 2.50 shipping (US), e-mail:
ljconnor@aol.com   

Almond Pollination Handbook, by Joe Traynor:  One of the most
practical pollination guides ever written, the information is
applicable to many other crops, as well.  $7.50 pp, Kovak Books, PO
Box 1422, Bakersfield, CA    93302

BeeCulture  The best periodical for beginner beekeepers. 
bculture@aol.com

CRITICAL TERMS:
"Pollinator"  - a bee or other agent that transfers pollen from one
flower to another, thus accomplishing cross pollination of the seeds,
which stimulates development of high quality fruit flesh.

"Pollenizer"  - a plant variety that provides compatible pollen at the
same time as the plant to be pollinated (ie. a "daddy" plant).  Plants
do not "pollinate" other plants; bees do that. And no plant variety is
a "pollinator," again, that is the bee's job.

Warning:  If you talk to an "authority who talks about "pollinator"
plants, or plants "pollinating" other plants, you'd be wise to check
another authority whose thinking isn't so muddy.  Plants pollenize
other plants, bees pollinate them. I would not buy from a nurseryman
who does not know the difference. 


Pollinator@aol.com     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA






Tom Hodges, hodges@jps.net, voice (503)-531-0121
http://www.jps.net/~hodges
Tom Hodges, hodges@jps.net, voice (503)-531-0121
http://www.jps.net/~hodges