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Started by Patrick at 10 Jan 2006 2:02 PM. Topic has 1 replies.

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   10 Jan 2006, 2:02 PM
Patrick is not online. Last active: 10/01/2006 13:50:11 Patrick

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Joined on 10 Jan 2006
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Bees, wild bird cover and apple orchards
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I have two questions that are related:

Do bees that forage intensively in brassica (e.g. kale) containing wild bird cover produce honey of inferior quality?

Is it likely that wild bird cover crops (i.e. ones that contain brassicas) sited close to apple orchards will attract bees away from orchards resulting in poor pollination in the orchards?


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   20 Jan 2006, 2:46 PM
Hornbeam is not online. Last active: 20/01/2006 14:27:58 Hornbeam

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Joined on 20 Jan 2006
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Re: Bees, wild bird cover and apple orchards
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Inferior when compared to what? Given the range of honey bees and the amount of OSR grown in this country, I would have thought that non-brassica honey would be hard to achieve during the spring months.

We are surrounded by OSR and have a beehive in the middle of our 50-odd fruit trees, and we have certainly not noticed a problem with pollination. I think it is true to say that many species of insect pollinate fruit trees, and fruit set is determined by many factors, of which the occurance of frost at flowering time is probably the most important. If my memory serves me right there was a late frost last spring, here in East Anglia, and the late flowerers were affected 


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