Australian Stonefruit Grower Magazine Issue 3 December 2016 | Page 14

Everybody loves honeybees . In fact , humans have loved honeybees for thousands of years . Bees appear in Egyptian mythology , Greek legends , and even creation stories from the Kalahari desert .

Feature

Bee pollinating a peach flower . Photo : Fir0002 / Flagstaffotos

There is plan bee

By Jenny Ekman

Everybody loves honeybees . In fact , humans have loved honeybees for thousands of years . Bees appear in Egyptian mythology , Greek legends , and even creation stories from the Kalahari desert .

Honeybees provide honey , wax , and a whole range of products with potential health benefits . They are also , of course , efficient pollinators of many crops . Most varieties of apricots , peaches and nectarines are self-fertile . However , bees are far from redundant . Flowers are “ designed ” to be visited by insects , and peach pollen is too heavy to be carried by wind . Fruit set and yield increase significantly if bees visit the flowers . Research back in the 1970s clearly demonstrated that honeybees can double or even triple yield for some varieties compared to relying on self-pollination alone .

In contrast , many varieties of plums are selfincompatible , so must be cross-pollinated with another
14 Australian Stonefruit Grower | December 2016 summerfruit . com . au