Value of Honey Bees

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FORUM - BEE BENEFITS TO AGRICULTURE

Agricultural Research, March 2004

 

Complete article at:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar04/form0304.htm

 

One mouthful in three of the foods you eat directly or indirectly depends on

pollination by honey bees. The value of honey bee pollination to U.S.

agriculture is more than $14 billion annually, according to a Cornell

University study. Crops from nuts to vegetables and as diverse as alfalfa,

apple, cantaloupe, cranberry, pumpkin, and sunflower all require pollinating

by honey bees.

 

For fruit and nut crops, pollination can be a grower's only real chance to

increase yield. The extent of pollination dictates the maximum number of

fruits. Post-pollination inputs, whether growth regulators, pesticides,

water, or fertilizer, are actually designed to prevent losses and preserve

quality rather than increase yield.

 

When pollination is this important, farmers can't depend on feral honey bees

that happen to nest near crop fields. That's why farmers contract with

migratory beekeepers, who move millions of bee hives to fields each year

just as crops flower. Pollinating California's 420,000 acres of almond trees

alone takes between 900,000 and 1 million honey bee colonies.

 

But the bees' importance goes far beyond agriculture. They also pollinate

more than 16 percent of the flowering plant species, ensuring that we'll

have blooms in our gardens.

 

Of course, there is also the honey. More than $130 million worth of raw

honey was produced in 2002 in the United States.

 

 

Also: WHAT'S BUZZING WITH AFRICANIZED HONEY BEES?

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar04/bees0304.htm