A Measurement of the Pollination Success of Native Bees in North Georgia Apple Orchards: Is there a need for Commercial European Honeybees?

View the project final report

• 2011 annual report

Commodities

• Fruits: apples, general tree fruits

Practices

• Education and Training: on-farm/ranch research
• Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, habitat enhancement, wildlife
• Pest Management: traps
• Production Systems: general crop production
• Sustainable Communities: sustainability measures

Honeybees pollinate 1/3 of all human food crops. The value of honeybee pollination to U.S. agriculture is over $15 billion each year. However, agricultural operations worldwide are facing a growing dilemma that threatens food production: the rapid decline of the Honeybee.

A solution to this problem is the diverse assortment of native bees. Many of these bees have the potential to supplement or replace the dwindling honeybee as the primary pollinator for a range of crops.

The focus of the current project was to identify the native bees present in North Georgia apple orchards, and to measure their pollination success.

The study had two main objectives.

(1) The first objective was to conduct a survey of the native bees present in North Georgia Apple Orchards from March to September 2011, in order to measure native bee species diversity and abundance before, during, and after the apple bloom.

(2) The second objective was to measure the success of native bees in apple pollination and fruit production.