If the temperature is above 55 and honeybees are nearby you will attract a large quantity of bees if honey is exposed. They will focus on the honey until it is gone. Not sure what happens afterward as for pollinating the flowers. Below 55 they stay in the hive and keep their larva warm while consuming stored honey. Hope it works for you. Bill
I’ll try the honey first as I just found out that liquid anise is hard to find and kind of pricey.
Thanks everyone. I’ll let you know what happens.
Would you recommend honey straight onto the tree or onto a piece of paper or disposable dish of some kind?
We are getting so totally spoiled by having these hives here. Its definately worth making contact with a bee keeper and getting hives placed. Our fruit set this year is just rockin.
I would not put it on a tree. Best to put some in a plate so they can approach from the edge without getting stuck. You can also remove it easily. If the temps are high and bees are nearby don’t be surprised if there is a feeding frenzy. Don’t place near where people will be. As a former beekeeper I have seen what happens when honey is left exposed.
I like your approach. Bill
Honey sounds like a great way to feed bees but I doubt it will do anything for your trees. In fact it will distract them from the trees IMO.
Fruitnut. I think you have got it right not to mention the liability of creating a frenzy of bees.
So it seems everybody agrees with providing as much attractant to bees as possible to make it a bee “mecca”. That is what my intuition told me as well, but what I’ve read (not all though) has indicated something somewhat opposite to that. I’ve certainly read about growing plants which produce blossom that are attractants to bees, read a lot of that in fact.
Most of the commercial grade reading I’ve done (a lot of it) has indicated just the opposite. I’m currently under the understanding that bees are lazy like most animals or humans in that they will generally go for the flowers that produce the most nectar/food for them and that that most often is not the blossom on our fruit trees.
I’m torn about this because I can easily see the logic both ways. I do believe that (as I’ve read) that bees will visit dandelion bloom far more often than fruit tree bloom as I’ve witnessed that first hand. I mention dandelion because it is so prevalent, I can only imagine that other prolific bloomers may be even more enticing.
So, my question is…do we make our orchards a mecca for bee food…or an area where food is readily available, but the target is predetermined to our advantage?
Thoughts? Studies?
When fruit trees are in bloom there’s lots of other blossoms available here. When you talk about what bees do according to what you’ve read it is likely regarding honey bees. Around here home growers mostly rely on native pollinators, many of whom will be out in cool windy weather when their effete European brethern are staying warm and comfy in their hives.
I have never been out on a reasonably warm day when my trees are in bloom and not found them actively tended by a myriad of native pollinators, even though there is a wide range of alternative food. Interestingly, one small commercial orchard I prune and consult for has hives and it hasn’t gotten adequate pollination the last couple of seasons, apparently (fine floral display but inadequate fruit set).
As I mentioned, there is variation in the species that tend the flowers of any given fruit tree species, particularly with paw paws and pears. I suspect if you entirely rely on one species, such as honeybees, the danger of an alternative blooming food source distracting them is much higher.
However, when honeybees are in the mix here, they are always quite interested in my stonefruit and apple blossoms. They were quite a presence last year and may have been coming from a wild hive which is an exciting development if the trend continues. I’ve read that CCD is over so it may well do so.
I tried hand pollinating with a small brush and it didn’t appear that I was getting any pollen on the brush. Has anyone just tried plucking off a flower and twisting it around the other flowers instead of using the paintbrush?
In the middle of my attempted hand pollination, look what showed up!
Maybe the bees are pollinating my plums/pluots after all…
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That is great. Nothing better at doing the job than the honeybee. Sometimes I just use a flower as you mentioned and move back and forward to different varieties. Bill
Flower method isn’t nearly as good as a small paint brush. Sometimes things aren’t shedding, time of day, temperature, etc. And they only shed at a certain stage. You’ll recognize that stage with a little experience.
Ahh…thanks, makes sense.
Harvestman…you make good points about honeybees vs. other native pollinators…I hadn’t thought about that and that is probably what it responsible for the variation in study material. I have without question though witnessed wild honey bees favoring dandelion bloom on more than one occasion. Probably where the suggestion came from to commercial orchards to rid their orchard floors of dandelions. Here is one such suggestion by Colorado State…it isn’t the best one by far, but the first I came across in a quick search.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07002.html
True though that honey bees aren’t so active when chilly, but they are the biggest pollinators of fruit trees and as such, probably most attention should be paid to them I think.
A good brush is one of those make-up brushes women use to apply the beige colored stuff to their cheeks. Their very light bristled and fine and have tons of bristles and their kinda shredded on the ends. I found an unused one in my wife’s stuff and it worked great…you could see the pollen gathered about in the bristles.
Fruitnut…I cannot see why the flower wouldn’t work just as well if not better. The shedding issue you speak of would be a concern no matter whether using a brush or the flower itself…wouldn’t it?
I wonder why the honeybees in my orchard never show much interest in dandelions when my fruit trees are in bloom. I didn’t need to see link to know that this is often spoken of in literature about commercial fruit production.
Here it is the smaller insects that tend to my dandelions. I wonder if this isn’t just one of those unfounded myths that keeps being repeated without corroberaitive research. Even in medicine this is an extremely frequent occurance according to a very interesting study made about 15 years ago, with doctors making recommendations based on unproven methodology at a shockingly high percentage.
Of course, I’m not saying the suggestion isn’t true, only that it doesn’t jive with my own experience.
Appleseed70. The make-up brush your using might be better than lightly rubbing flowers together. Seems like it would be similar to how insects would pollinate. I have some soft art brushes that I rarely need for their intended purpose that might work well also. Bill
Alan I’m not certain about verifying this but It takes a lot of nectar/pollen to make honey and rear brood. It just makes sense to me that the bees would go after the largest source first like a group of flowering fruit trees. One of the honeybees characteristics that makes them great pollinators is that they tend to work one type plant at a time. In my earlier years I had about 65 colonies of bees and was also into queen rearing. Bill
Auburn,I don’t think bees go after flowers with the largest source, necessarily. Scientists have known it has been a combination of visual light spectrum (color of the flower), as well as smell that will attract bees to any particular flower. Now, they are finding that electrical charge of the flower also plays a significant role in attracting bees. Here is a very interesting article about that:
Honey, It’s Electric: Bees Sense Charge On Flowers
If there is a correlation between visual, olfactory and electric attraction to high nectar quantity, then the bees would be getting the most bang for their buck, but I don’t think that correlation always exists. I can’t help but wonder if some of the stone fruit that seem to be less visited have lesser color, smell and/or electrical charge attributes? We’ll probably never know, but I suspect this may be more the case.
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