With the Government close to launching its National Pollinator Strategy, bee farmers throughout the UK re-iterate their call for more investment in this crucial industry.
A good proportion of our diet relies on plants and crops being pollinated properly.
Managed and targeted pollination is the only way to plug any pollination deficit in this country. Honeybees are one of the only predictable pollinators.
We need to build up the number of hives. We also need to value what bee farmers in this country do.
Twenty five years ago I made my living by providingpollination services with honeybees. Now it is very difficult. Farmers, growers and consumers need to appreciate the value of pollination and the crucial role bee farmers, and particularly members of the Bee Farmers Association play in providing this service. We need to get real information on how crop yields are increased.
Managed honeybee pollination is an efficient way to achievepollination for crops, fromtop fruits and soft fruits, to arable crops such as oilseed rape, field beans and borage.
The increased size of today's fields and orchards, along with high costs of all sorts of production inputs, means that farmers and growers should be looking to consider the benefits of managed pollination. Putting the correct number of managed hives into or around these crops helps to ensure pollination.
Wild pollinators such as bumblebees and solitary bees are small colonies or even just individual adults in early spring, when pollinators are most needed. Their queens will have just begun to set up nests and are rearing young worker bees. The benefits of honeybees placed in early spring are huge in comparison, as honeybee colonies coming out of the winter will contain 25-30,000 bees with the queen.
- Oilseed rape -An improvement in seed yield of15-20 per cent can be achieved by addinghoneybees at two hives per hectare, compared tothe absence of hives (2005, Sabbahi). There is also the benefit of a uniform and early pod set with a much shorter flowering period of nearly four days, which could benefit disease control. If oilseed rape is grown for seed, the presence of bees also increases germination success from 83 per cent to 96 per cent. Oil content is also increases by approximately four per cent.
- Field Beans - More pods set on the lower trusses andyield increases of11 cwt/acre (1380 kg/ha) can be achived with the introduction of managed hives.
- Borage - A high level of pollination is essential for borage to produce maximum yields. The flower heads of borage plants open for justone day. Therefore it is crucial to get hives to the crop just before flowering begins. Trials in New Zealand showed a 20 per cent increase in yield when hives were introduced to the crop.
- Top fruit and soft fruit - These all benefit from managed pollination and managed honeybees are one way of achieving this. Quality is far superior, seed content is high making for better shaped fruit and higher yields. The calcium content in apples is increased with insect pollination giving the fruit a longer storage life. Hives need to be introduced to these crops once there is approximately five per cent blossom. This encourages bees to work right away. Bees placed too early may search for other food sources away from the target crops. This is where the expertise of the professional bee farmer comes in.
Members of the Bee Farmers Association have generations of experience of providing the correct number of hives in the right condition to work at the time they are required, and they will advise farmers and growers accordingly. This is SMART bee farming, and SMART bee farming equals good pollination.
The Bee Farmers Association is the only organisation in the UK to have a pollination officer whose job is to look after this important aspect of bee farming andthe biodiversity of the our countryside.
For further information please see the Bee Farmers Associationwebsite or contact Alan at cG9sbGluYXRpb25AYmVlZmFybWVycy5jby51aw== or our general secretary Margaret Ginman at Z2Vuc2VjQGJlZWZhcm1lcnMuY28udWs=. Or you can visit our Facebook page.