How Bees Benefit Crops
Bees pollinate about one-sixth of the world's flowering plant species and some 400 of its agricultural plants. Poorly pollinated plants produce fewer, often misshapen, fruits and lower yields of seed with inevitable consequences upon quality, availability and price of food. No human activity or ingenuity could ever replace the work of bees and yet it is largely taken for granted.
One of the few farm activities that can actually increase yields, rather than simply protect existing yields from losses, is to manage bees to encourage good pollination and that is exactly what we do at Heather Hills Farm by moving our bees to different crops to coincide with flowering times.