40 | Bumble bees our pollination ‘superheros’ The business is owned by the NZ Horticultural Trust, and is one of several business entities within its structure. Mike’s advice to the home gardener is to wait to purchase hives until the garden has plants ready for pollination. Sue Russell When commercial tomato growing moved indoors into glasshouse propogation a solution to how these plants could be pollinated, needed to be found. The answer lay in the humble hard-working bumble bee, and in the development of Biobees, NZ’s only specialised Bumble Bee Hive provider to the horticulture industry. The Hastings-based business supplies hives of various sizes, mainly to tomato growers and other horticulturalists as well as to the home-gardener and has been at the forefront of promoting the use of bumble bees as pollination ‘super-heros’. Mike Sim, the company’s General Manager, explains what makes the bumble bee such an efficient pollinator. “Bumble bees are buzz pollinators, so can access pollen from plants that honey bees can’t and they’re terrific hard-workers, putting in long hours each day and in poorer weather. In most crops their benefits push yeilds higher than honey-bees can achieve alone, and their weather capability helps to reduce variability from season to season”. The business is owned by the NZ Horticultural Trust, and is one of several business entities within its structure. Mike says the Trust is a national organisation, established to giving a helping hand to the horticulture and viticulture sectors through grants supporting their initiatives. While the bulk of the market is supplying hives to commercial situations, Biobees also caters to home-growers with smaller hives. Their website details options and prices and is full of tips for siting and caring for each hive. Mike says each hive has been carefully nurtured, from a single Queen and grown to a size ready for pollination. Every hive has been established naturally and follows its normal life-cycle. “We grow a hive for eight weeks for a standard commercial hive. When we supply the hive it is still developing, still growing, but has a good base of worker bees and plenty of young ones coming on.” When hives are grown at their site, the Queen is given all the food she requires and this continues through its growth before being dispatched. Mike says there are just a few simple rules around caring for the hive. “It’s important to find a good location and spread hives throughout the orchard. A water-proof and insulated hive can be ordered to protect them from the elements, but its important the hive is out of the way of equipment, people or pets, as they don’t appreciate being moved short distances later on.” Each hive has a sliding door that is opened once the hive is well settled, for the bumble bees to fly in and out of. “It’s important when a hive is first settled to just leave it closed for a while to let the bees calm down from their journey, then the slider can be opened and they’ll get on and start visiting flowers to supply food to the hive.” RURAL PEOPLE » Biobees Ltd NEW ZEALAND NATURE, MADE JUICE. 1,200 New Zealand grown blueberries in every bottle. 100% pure juice,nothing added. CAFE SHOP mamakublue.co.nz 311 Maraeroa Road | Mamaku | Rotorua 3072 | NZ BUMBLEBEES POLLINATORS YOU CAN TRUST WEATHER HARDY WORK MORE DAYS & LONGER EACH DAY SYNERGY WITH HONEYBEES BETTER CROSS-POLLINATION 2 - 3X FASTER ON FLOWERS DEPENDABLE ACTIVITY INSULATED BOX ALTERNATE PEAKS OF ACTIVITY IMPROVED SPEED & EFFICIENCY UP TO 20X BETTER IN SOME CROPS (06) 879 - 5883 office@biobees.co.nz www.biobees.co.nz While tomato producers are the largest slice of their market, Mike says in recent years, there’s been good growth in the berry producing sector, with many growers moving plants inside greenhouse structures. “We’re a service business supporting growers, so our trade goes up and down a little depending on how the different sectors are performing and what crops are grown. Generally though we’ve been on an upward trajectory in terms of hive production and supply since we started.” Mike’s advice to the home gardener is to wait to purchase hives until the garden has plants ready for pollination, especially fruit trees. Fortunately, the science backing the efficiency and effectiveness of bumble bee pollination is continuing to strengthen, and Mike says this is timely given the talk of late within the horticultural sector of honey bees being in shorter supply in some areas. “If I have one message to get out there to growers, it’s to let them know that bumble bees are a very good addition to your pollination plans, or as an alternative if honeybees are proving hard to source or unreliable, but to make contact with us now so we can guarantee supply. It would be fantastic if more growers knew just how incredible these wonder pollinators are and how effective they are at commercial scales, indoors or out.”
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