set a crop when a short period of good flying conditions occurs. 

 In summary, moving honey bee colonies to the orchard increases the 

 control of the orchardist over pollination and insures an adequate 

 fruit set. In addition, the incidence of misshapen fruit caused 

 by partial pollination and loss of crop because of light bloom or 

 bad weather may be reduced or eliminated. 



How Many Honey Bee Colonies are Required for Adequate Pollination ? 



Obviously, many factors influence the answer to this question. 

 Generally, one colony per acre is recommended. Hives may be arranged 

 singly or in groups of four in various locations. Grouping in fours 

 is superior because colonies competing with one another increase 

 the number of workers flying from tree to tree thereby increasing 

 the number of flowers being cross-pollinated. Peculiar planting 

 patterns may require a different number of hives and require special 

 management plans. 



How Do I Know I am Renting Colonies of Significant Size ? 



In New England, there are two sources of bees used for pollina- 

 tion; colonies that have survived the winter and those established 

 in the spring from a package of workers and a queen shipped from the 

 southern United States. Overwintered colonies are best for pollina- 

 tion. They begin to rear brood (young bees) in large numbers in 

 March and by late April the colony should be increasing rapidly in 

 adult population and quantity of brood. Such colonies are ideal for 

 orchard pollination. Packages are frequently established in the 

 North in late April and early May. They consist of two or three 

 pounds of bees (about 6-9000) and a queen. Because it takes 21 days 

 to rear a bee to adulthood, the adult population of a package colony 

 will decline for at least 21 days after they are placed in a hive. 

 Therefore, this unit will very likely have a reduced adult population 

 at the very time pollination is desired. A colony rented for pol- 

 lination should have at least three to four combs (frames) of brood 

 and the necessary adults to care for the brood. The modules making 

 up a bee hive come in several sizes. The combs referred to above 

 are 8-7/16" x 16-3/4". 



An orcha.rdist should have a letter of contract with the hee- 

 keeper specifying three to four combs of brood in e'very colony 

 rented for pollination regardless of the hive size . An orchardist 

 should have the right to inspect colonies provided for pollination 

 to see that the size requirement is met. This need not be a danger- 

 ous procedure. An alternative is to have the beekeeper open and 

 display colonies randomly chosen by the orchardist. Brood combs 

 may be identified by the dense covering of bees. Covers may be re- 

 moved from comb cells revealing developing young bees. Each box 

 usually has nine or ten combs in wooden frames. Brood containing 

 frames are at the bottom of the hive or sometimes in the second box 

 (super) . 



