When I went out today to check on a large raspberry ranch my bees have been taking care of for 5 years, I took along the camera as I thought some of you might be interested in how bees actually increase our food production. If you go to the link, and click on the pictures one by one I provide a brief overview of what actually goes on below the picture.

pollinating_the_raspberries Photo Gallery by Dan at pbase.com

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Tim Vaughan, 48 years old, member PCA church but currently attending EV Free church. San Luis Obispo County, California.

How's business Tim?

I have a hive myself and am nursing it along this year (my first.) Thanks for posting the pics.

PS. Does raspberry honey have a distinct flavor?

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Bryan Wiley
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Reformed Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky

Tim,

I love raspberries.

On the Baltimore Beltway (Interstate 695) wild raspberries grow on the median strip between the north and southbound lanes. In August it's not unusual to see a half dozen cars parked on the shoulder lane and folks picking berries. Strange sight in a major city.

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Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Out here in CA all we have are wild blackberries, and they're almost always small and sour!

The bees out here are dwindling, and no one really knows why. I only have about 70 hives now, and had to cancel some long term agreements for pollinating this year, but it's not like I can do anything about it. Farmers are nervous, and many are short bees, but that's agriculture. One year feast, one year famine and 3 years getting by.

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Tim Vaughan, 48 years old, member PCA church but currently attending EV Free church. San Luis Obispo County, California.

Tim,

Aren't the beekeepers assuming the disappearance is from colony collapse disorder? That's the common assumption in this neck of the country. No known cause.

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Bryan Wiley
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Reformed Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky

Tim, I am actually wondering about how to prune and revive an old respberry patch that we will have on our place. It hasn't been put into active production for years now but I think there are some real possibilities for getting it productive again. Maybe we should be looking into starting up a hive... (though I'm not sure about that, as I'm deathly allergic!)

Sorry, a little

Great thread, by the way!

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Kevin
Far East
Deacon, Int'l Church

Kevin, you'll need to dig it up and plant something else in the same place for a year, as there are all sorts of diseases that collect over the years with raspberries.

In the mean time, you can get new plants and plant them in another place, hopefully several yards away from the old area.

Regards
Tim

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Tim Vaughan, 48 years old, member PCA church but currently attending EV Free church. San Luis Obispo County, California.

Nice photos.

Happily, there are plenty of bumblebees and leaf cutters around my area. My Summit raspberries are ripening (they ripen over about a month and a half) and I've been having them with breakfast. The Meekers are finally growing vigorously. It's been a cold, wet, spring and everything is way behind.

I wish I could get the bumbles to go in my greenhouse to pollinate the tomatos. I have to go in there and buzz the blossoms myself, but I'm getting food fruit set anyway. I was lazy and didn't plant greenhouse tomatos this year because I forgot to order seed.

I pray your bees hold up. They are as important as water.

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R.Vic Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Yes, thank God in Oregon we have solitary mason bees or we mightn't have had anything this summer, the season was late. I have black cap raspberries from the farmers' market this morning. They seem too delicate to put in pancakes.

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The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873
Meg
Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Yes, Meg, and there's another native kind that's helpful in cooler weather when honeybees don't work, the Blue Orchard Bee. It's really cute; they use bamboo sections to house them. This is an experiment done on an Almond ranch we pollinate. The bees did well, but there simply weren't enough, so we went back to honey bees.

As far as tomatoes, as Vic implied, honeybees don't work them. Commercial farmers often buy native Bumble Bee hives and put them in the greenhouse. If you don't have any in the greenhouse, you can pull the string of the tomato support to make the plant vibrate which will pollinate the plants (which Vic also implied).

Here's a Blue Orchard Bee from our experiment

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Tim Vaughan, 48 years old, member PCA church but currently attending EV Free church. San Luis Obispo County, California.

Wow, that's beautiful.

We rejoice with you as we recollect our recent plum tree harvest that was a consequence of an exceptional season of pollination (and we don't even keep bees).

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~Jay~
Husband of ENS, father of J II. | Indian Trail, NC
Currently disabled due to health issues
Communicant Member, Precentor | Presbyterian Reformed Church of Charlotte, NC | Presbyterian Reformed Church