Beeflow Pollination Pt 1

From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. Some call setting up beehives next to a field of crops, pollination 1-point-0, but researchers at Beeflow have raised the bar to, pollination 2-point-0.

Beeflow’s Global Director of Field Development, Angie De la Luz says the are not beekeepers, but work with beekeepers while expanding their focus to the training of honeybees …

DeLaLUZ … “It’s really interesting and it’s one of the things that drew me to the company because it’s so simple in its elegance and how it works. And so, we’ve all done this, if you have a dog or a bird or any kind of pet that you’re trying to train. It’s called classical conditioning.”

Think of it, De la Luz says as classical conditioning, sort of like Pavlov’s dog …

DeLaLUZ … “And so, that same type of conditioning, we can actually apply to bees. But instead of using a sound like a bell, we actually use the smell of the crop that we want them to pollinate.”

But training as a group instead of individually …

DeLaLUZ … “So, we do everything inside the colony. We don’t apply anything to the crop itself. So, if you train the colony all at once using the smell of the crop that we want them to visit, whether that’s blueberries or raspberries or almonds or whatever we happen to be working in.”

And that, De la Luz says helps them stay focused …

DeLaLUZ … “So, our goal here is really two-fold. It’s to focus the bees on the crop so growers can maximize their yield potential while also keeping this non-native species, which is the honeybee that we use for agriculture pollination, out of natural areas so that they’re kind of out of the way of those native species.”

Tune in tomorrow for more on Beeflow and the management of your honeybees.