Crop Pollination by Bees

Book excerpt: The collapse of the ubiquitous honeybee population during the past 20 years has caused a pollination vacuum for many crops. Surveys and grower experience indicate that a crisis exists in our pollinator populations. This book is an accessible, practical and authoritative research-based guide to using bees for crop pollination. It emphasizes conserving feral bee populations as well as more traditional methods of culturing honeybees and other bees. There are three main sections that address the biology of pollination, culturing and managing bees for optimum crop pollination, and individual crop pollination requirements and recommendations. This last section includes 42 short chapters on different crops.