Harris County Beekeepers Association

Prized Pollinators

The importance of our pollinators can never be emphasized too much!

Nearly 80% of the world’s crop plants require pollination to make fruit and set seeds.

Pollinators help provide one in every 3 bites of food we take!

There are many different kinds of pollinators—animals, bats, birds, bees, beetles, butterflies, flies, moths, wasps, and even mosquitoes participate in the pollination of plants, but honey bees are “prized pollinators” and here is why—

Honey bees desirability as pollinators stems from the fact the colonies can be moved to crops requiring pollination—approximately 1.2 million colonies were necessary just to pollinate one 2008 crop—California’s $3 billion almond crop.

Plants have different “pollination windows”. For example, the pollination window for apples is several days, but for some varieties of pears pollination must take place in as little as 24 hours of flowering. Each honey bee colony contains large populations of foragers capable of effectively working crops, especially those with a narrow pollination window.

A honey bee will usually work only one flower type on each trip, not mixing the pollens—this is known as “flower fidelity” or being “flower true”. As a result of this tendency towards “flower fidelity” crops can be sprayed with certain attraction pheromones assuring the honey bees will work the target crop.

Honey bees produce their own crops of which honey is only one. Many of the products from the hive are highly sought after in today’s marketplace.

“The most economically important insect in the world.”

Honey bees have been called “the most economically important insect in the world” by Washington State University entomologist, Walter S. Sheppard, a member of the international consortium for honey bee genome sequencing.

Honey bees are the best known and most widely managed of all the pollinators in the United States. Honey bees pollinate approximately 130 different crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, oil seeds, and legumes, many of which are used for livestock feed and forage.

More than $14 billion of the U. S. agricultural products annually are a result of honey bee pollination.

Without honey bees many of the foods you enjoy regularly would be greatly reduced in numbers—which negatively impacts availability and ultimately, cost to the consumer. Access to a variety of nutritious, affordable food is important to the overall health of the American people.

And lastly, our nation’s sovereignty and security is dependent upon its ability to produce food in sufficient quantities to support its population and honey bees play a significant role in this effort!