At the present time, we have no method o£ discouraging bees from 

 visiting these weed plants. 



Fresh Water 



Honey bees use large quantities of water to dilute the honey 

 which they feed to their young. Bees may collect water from wheel 

 ruts and depressions in the orchard. These may contain an accumu- 

 lation of pesticides. If the bees have fresh, clean water, fewer 

 will die. Beekeepers who rent bees for apple pollination expect to 

 lose a small number of their bees because of pesticides and they 

 adjust the rent price of their colonies accordingly. The grower 

 who provides fresh water for honey bee colonies will benefit. 



Hand-Collected Pollen 



A small number of apple growers in New York State buy hand- 

 collected apple pollen, take it to the orchard and play "little Miss 

 Honey Bee." Hand-collected pollen may be applied to the female 

 parts of a flower with a brush. Little pollen, if any, gets where 

 it is needed when it is dropped from an airplane or shot into a tree 

 from a shotgun shell. While this may be fun, it is a waste of time 

 and money. There is nothing mysterious about cross-pollination. It 

 involves the transfer of pollen from one apple variety to another 

 apple variety. 



Honey bees can cross-pollinate apples easily, quickly and at 

 a reasonable cost if they are given the proper management and if the 

 orchard is properly interplanted with varieties which have pollen 

 which will cross-pollinate each other. Neither hand-collected 

 pollen or pollen moved by bees will grow unless the temperature is 

 sufficiently high. 



Hedgerowing is a Special Problem 



Nearly all orchards planted today follow the same scheme. The 

 apples are grown on dwarf rootstock and planted in hedgerows. 



A wind of about 12 miles per hour stops bee flight. A wind of 

 only a few miles per hour will slow bee flight and oftentimes dis- 

 courage bees from flying over the tops of hedgerows. We know from 

 experience that bees prefer to fly up and down the sides of rows. 

 Planting pollenizing varieties in the row is important because there 

 must be an exchange of pollen to set fruit. 



*************** 



POMOLOGICAL PARAGRAPH 



Foliage sprays containing nitrogen for fertilizing peaches . Peach 

 trees frequently have small pale green leaves, or yellow leaves 

 with red flecks that develop into a mild "shothole" condition. These 

 are symptoms of nitrogen (N) deficiency caused either by cold weather 



