POLLINATION
For a plant to reproduce, the pollen from a male plant has to be transferred to a female plant.
Once this is done, a seed is produced and the plants makes the fleshy part of the fruit/vegetable to protect the seed. Without pollination there’d be no seeds. Without seeds there’d be no fruit.
A honey bee visits flowers to collect both pollen and nectar. The nectar is stored in her “honey stomach” and the pollen in “pollen baskets” on her legs. As the bee travels from flower to flower, some of this pollen falls off into the stigma of the female plant and causes fertilisation. The more flowers on a plant that are fertilised, the more fruit the plant produces. Yield per plant and yield per hectare is increased.
Some plants are almost solely pollinated by bees. These include kiwifruit, macadamias and squashes. Because there had been a worldwide decline in the natural bee population, it has become necessary to bring bees in when crops are flowering in order to increase their yield.
A farmer can’t leave bees on his land throughout the year. One reason is that when the flowering season is over, the bees won’t have anything to feed on and will leave. Another reason is the contentious issue of pesticides. Although there is a big move towards environmentally-friendly chemicals, a lot will still kill bees. The farmer has to prepare and protect his land for planting and harvesting, and often this entails spraying chemicals that could potentially harm the bees. So bees need to be moved onto or off the farm depending on whether crops are flowering or are being sprayed.
Moving large numbers of hives to a safe alternative food source requires skill and planning. The bees can become quite disgruntled until they are settled in their new location. They need to be moved professionally to minimise bee stress and lost swarms. Also, it is dangerous for workers unskilled in bee removal to perform this task because of the threat of stings from angry bees.
This is not the farmer’s core business so it makes sense to outsource this vital service to a bee expert. Barker Bees hires hives to farmers. We transport mature, hard-working swarms onto farms when they are needed for pollination, and then move them out again at the end of the flowering season. Barker Bees will always work closely with the farmer to ensure optimal yield pollination for him while at the same time ensuring the bees safety.
Email Address
buzz@barkerbees.co.za
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082 891 1755