The bees have arrived and the weather has been partly cloudy in the 60s so they have been busy pollinating our early varieties which are in bloom. I have included two pictures of the bees. The first is one of the bumblebees which we bought from Koppert Biological and the second is of a honeybee which we rent while the field is in bloom. (If you click on the picture twice, it should enlarge it enough so you can actually see the bees.) The bumblebees are of the species Bombus impatiens and are a little smaller than the large wild bumblebees we see in our gardens. They are shipped in a cardboard box called a quad which has a total of 4 hives in each box.
We decided to use bumblebees because of their ability to buzz pollinate blueberry flowers (The actual buzzing they make when in a blueberry blossom causes the blossom to vibrate and release its’ pollen.) and because of the uncertainty of renting enough honeybee hives. Bumblebees can also tolerate cooler temperatures, more wind and even light rain as opposed to the honeybees. However, when the conditions are right, there will be significantly more honeybees in the blossoms than bumblebees. Hopefully we’ll have just the right mix to maximize pollination.
This is a picture of our friend George on the tractor working in the second field. It appears that George is camera shy but the truth is that I’m not the best photographer. However, if you look closely, you can see George’s dog Lexi peering out from underneath the tractor (the tractor was not running at this point and the dog is fine!) George and my husband are working on Mother’s Day because when they made plans to work on the farm, they forgot Sunday was Mother’s Day. That’s almost as bad as not getting your wife a birthday cake because you figure she’s had enough cake in the last month!
Seriously, it was very nice of George to give up visiting his mom in favor of fighting black flies, very large rocks and picking up blueberry canes at Berrybogg Farm. Last year he spent the day tying up bushes in the second field so customers could actually get down the rows so in his honor we will be renaming row 11 in the second field George’s Row. How’s that for immortality?
We are patiently awaiting the blossoms opening so the bees can arrive. Hopefully, we will have some success by the middle of this week. We have both honey bees and bumble bees coming this year in hopes that we have a successful pollination rate. I will post more pictures when they arrive.
