Honeybees and Pollination - When setting up the apiary last year, we decided to plant some fruit trees in front of the hives as a natural way to make the bees’ flight path more elevated rather than using an unattractive fence.

It definitely worked and the bees take off flying right over the trees and out of the way of anyone passing by.  It also offers some cover from unwanted attention which is an added bonus.

Since we are finally in the flowering/fruiting period, the effect of having fruit trees so close to the hives is amazing.  We had planted plums, apples,pear and cherry trees, and now, the amount of fruit beginning to grow is surprising.  It’s pretty obvious that the benefits of having our amazing pollinators at work has to be seen to be believed.  I supposed its been pollination left right and center over the last few weeks and here are a few pictures of what I found around the apiary site while I was there inspecting the colonies.

The Cherry trees had a huge number of cherries on them so red and perfect, they tasted as good as they look.  I’m hoping the birds don’t get to them before they are a little more ripe

The plums and apples and pears still have a way to go before they are ready, but I could already see a lot of apples and some big juicy looking plums in the making.  the pears were still small, so I’ll investigate how they have progressed next week.