
Click image for caption and other photo
information. Read the
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story to find out more. Blue Orchard
Bees Help Pollinate Cherries By Marcia Wood February 20, 2003Cherry orchards pollinated by blue
orchard bees boast impressive harvests of this popular summer fruit.
Thats according to a research experiment, now in its sixth year in a
commercial cherry orchard in northern Utah. Blue orchard bees get their name from their metallic, blue-black color. Also
known as the orchard mason bee or, to scientists, as Osmia lignaria, the
bee could augment the efforts of this country's most widely used pollinator,
the domesticated honey bee. In recent years, many colonies of the honey bee,
Apis mellifera, have been hard hit by mites, beetles and competition
from the aggressive Africanized honey bee. Agricultural Research Serviceentomologist William P. Kemp of the agency's
Bee Biology and Systematics Research
Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and colleague Jordi Bosch of
Utah State University, also in Logan, are
conducting the pollination study. They are comparing cherry yields from before,
then after, they brought blue orchard bees to work in the orchard. In some years, production was twice as high when blue orchard bees were used
in place of honey bees, Bosch reported. The orchard pollinated by the blue
orchard bees produced harvestable yields even in years when bad weather robbed
most other cherry growers in the region of their harvest. Kemp and Bosch are authors of How to Manage the Blue Orchard
Bee, a soft-cover handbook published in 2001. This comprehensive
guide is packed with tips for commercial and hobbyist beekeepers. The orchard study and the handbook are briefly described in a recent issue
of the ARS monthly magazine, Agricultural Research. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures chief scientific research agency. U.S. Department of Agriculture |