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<pre>I am told by a good apiarist that because the olive flower predominately hangs
down that the bees in NZ and he thought Australia too is that the bees generally
will only pollinate flowers that are upright and that in Europe there is a small
bee that will hang upside down and is able to pollinate.
The name of that bee escapes me at this time. I do no it is banned from NZ.
He did some research on this and that this is correct.
That is why wind because of it's swirling action is best for pollination but not
to strong a wind. Hence the more mature the tree the greater the chance of the
swirling action and better pollination.
RON WATTAM

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<pre>Dear All,

In various bits of literature I have seen the comment made that bees do not
pollinate olive trees. However, there are hundreds of bees swarming all over
the flowers on my trees.

What are they doing there, if not pollinating? Is it true that only wind
pollinates olives?

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, Australia.
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<pre>You need to have a close look at the bees, if you move slowly you will not get
stung - they will be too busy to bother with you.

When you are close, watch and see if they have any pollen sacks or have pollen
on them. However, you may find they are gathering nectar, rather than pollen.
Bees will not normally bother with plants that produce very small amounts of
nectar unless there is no alternative.

I have not noticed any bees active in our olive groves, other on the cape weed
and clover growing beneath the trees.

(BTW. I am a former commercial beekeeper)


----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Wilson
To: OliveOil@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2003 7:46 AM
Subject: [OliveOil] Bees


Dear All,

In various bits of literature I have seen the comment made that bees do not
pollinate olive trees. However, there are hundreds of bees swarming all over
the flowers on my trees.

What are they doing there, if not pollinating? Is it true that only wind
pollinates olives?

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, Australia.



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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<pre>Yes, we always have trees alive with bees happily humming during
flowering. It is hard to believe they achieve nothing!
Judith

Cheers!
Alan and Judith


-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Wilson [mailto:mike.wilson@...]
Sent: Sunday, 26 October 2003 7:46
To: OliveOil@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [OliveOil] Bees


Dear All,

In various bits of literature I have seen the comment made that bees do
not pollinate olive trees. However, there are hundreds of bees swarming
all over the flowers on my trees.

What are they doing there, if not pollinating? Is it true that only wind
pollinates olives?

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, Australia.




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Subscribe: OliveOil-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: OliveOil-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Moderators: OliveOil-owner@yahoogroups.com
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http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
</pre>
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