strawberry's.... never see bees on there flowers

[adamant]

i have a field not far away and i never see bees on there flowers.. is there a certain time of the day that they visit them?

[Joseph Clemens]

Perhaps there are presently other things blooming that they are finding more attractive, right now.

I've seen bees working strawberries early in the morning, by noon I think they are done blooming for the day.

[adamant]

there is a whole field of peaches b4 the strawberry field!

[Moccasin]

They prefer peaches while they are in bloom, although it only lasts about a week at best.

[GageFamilyBeekeeping]

Strawberries MUST have bees to produce fruit. Here in Delaware, farmers bring in Honey Bees, (I currently have hives on Strawberries) and Bumble Bees for their fields. There are also lots of other bees that polinate Strawberries and some of them are better pollinators than Honey Bees. If you are not seeing Honey Bees on this field then it's likely that the Honey Bees are attracted to other nectar sources in the area. Honey Bees are creatures of habbit and if the Peach Trees bloomed before the Strawberries, (they did here) then the Honey Bees will fly right over the Strawberries to the Peaches, that's why we never bring bees to a filed we want to pollinate until the bloom is at least 10%

[adamant]

Thank you for your replies . Some real good information. Is there a web site like this forum on just pollination?

[KelpticFest]

Strawberries are a member of the rose family, which also includes stuff like peaches, apples, and the cane fruits. My guess would be that ALL of them need bees.

[adamant]

do they get nectar from the peach blossom?

[KelpticFest]

Don't know. It just seems that they ought to, since the roses evolved flowers to attract bees. A bee in a deprived snit might remember and not come back.

[kokomodreamin]

Strawberry's are self pollinating needing no bees, as per the folks that develop new strains of plants at the Univ. of Florida field office in Dover florida, next to Plant City florida a leader in strawberry production in the USA, but... according to a 1996 study from Cornell Univ , Joe Kovach IPM Program , Using bee to Disseminate Trichoderma to strawberries for Botrytis Control, adding bees for this study resulted in a 30 % increase in seeds and fruit weight.

[kokomodreamin]

A foot note, there are growers here that rent bees for strawberry's , it s a cheap hedge considering the thousands of dollars per acre to grow them. According to those growers, bees help keep fruit size consistant , and no doubt helps with the flats per acre count.
And they do visit blooms when there is nothing else going on. I've never seen them make stores, although the pollen grains can be found under a microscope.

[sqkcrk]

i have a field not far away and i never see bees on there flowers.. is there a certain time of the day that they visit them?

I have bees in blueberries this year and have a cranberry grower who uses my bees too. Unlike apples, one often doesn't see bees working crops that benefit from bees. But, when they aren't there the crop is not as abundant as when they are. I can't explain it, but it happens that one year w/ bees produces a crop far better than a year w/out bees.

[KelpticFest]

Strawberry's are self pollinating needing no bees,as per the folks that develop new strains of plants at the Univ. of Florida

In other words - only Frankenberries are self-pollinating?

[KelpticFest]

I've never seen them make stores, although the pollen grains can be found under a microscope.

And you can differentiate strawberry pollen from that of all the other roses? As a former palynologist, I highly doubt that. Though I believe that pollinators do in fact visit most flowering plants - that's the point of developing flowers. Plants ain't stupid.

[kokomodreamin]

I don't know where all the other roses are located, but Plant city ,has over 5000 acres of strawberries grown each year, and is the strawberry capital of Florida and Florida is second in the USA behind Cali for production, and that is where the i d of pollen grains came from, fyi. And again, all the data from the USF strawberry people and themselves will tell you they are self pollinating, and yes bees visit them well here since thats about the only thing blooming in the dead of winter ,and thats what bees do, visit flowers.
And the data speaks for its self , bees do cause better production if they are placed in fields.

[Clairesmom]

Forgive me for replying before I have posted an introduction (new member)........

I once had bees on strawberry pollination in Dover, Florida (next door to Plant City). After the berries were done I left my hives on the farm for a few weeks to save moving them again for another pollination job. The area was thick with citrus groves and the bees made a honey crop. I pulled the honey supers before moving the hives out, and when I went to extract them I discovered that the bees had actually made surplus from the strawberries and the orange. There wasn't much strawberry, maybe 20% of the frames, surrounded by the orange, but it was THE BEST honey I have ever tasted. I foolishly sold some of it before realizing that I might never see that again, at which point I stopped selling it and put it away for myself. People asked me for YEARS if I had any more of it, lol. I never offered it for sale again, but I do still have a few jars put away in my pantry for extra-special occasions.

And I was right, I never saw my bees put up a surplus on strawberries again.