Some experiences about pollination in Mexico and Usa: Almond, Sunflower and Cucurbitaceae

1
Some experiences about pollination in Mexico and
Usa Almond, Sunflower and Cucurbitaceae
2
I started very young and I focused in the honey
production at that time because I did not know
how important Pollination was.
3
In 1997 I met Pat Heitkam from Northern Ca and I
went to work for him.
4
I learned about pollination, since then the
almond industry was growing and keeps growing.
5
(No Transcript)
6
It seems like there is not enough colonies in the
US to cover these many acres of almond orchards.
7
Many other beekeepers take their bees off the
orchards after season is over and take them to
Washington to polinated apples, but the honey
price is good, so, many beekeepers choose to go
to Texas to make 100 or more pounds of honey
8
Like this other beekeeper that worked for Ray
Green from Mott, ND he gets pay 27 per hive so
he, like other beekeepers have the option to go
to Texas, make honey and better profit
9
NDSU entomologist Gary Brewer and graduate
student Jawahar Jyoti also discovered that the
bees improve pollination and seed set even in
sunflowers which are largely self-pollinated.
10
NDSU researchers found that honeybees can carry
Bacillus thuringiensis, commonly known as BT, to
sunflower heads. This bacteria kills the larvae
of moths and butterflies including the banded
sunflower heads.
11
The honeybee industry is being enlisted to help
boost the yield of sunflower growth for oil and
to battle one of the crops pest.
12

• Brewer built a BT aplicator to be placed at the
  hives exit.
• As bees leave their hive are covered with BT
  despite indistinctive efforts to clean
  themselves, the bees still carry and deposit
  enough BT on some flower heads to kill the larvae
  of the banded sunflower moth.
• The researchers have reported a yield increase of
  up to 15

13
Broadcast insecticides are beekeepers biggest
enemy. Anytime we can get away from broadcast
sprays, well be better.
14
I worked in the USA since 1992 to 2003 as a
beekeeper and I learned a lot of the American
beekeeping.
15
I though that it was time to come back home and
start our own beekeeping business with my family
that have a lot of confidence and courage to do
something trascendent.
16
Seems like things are looking up for us and now
we are giving pollination services to several
companies of cucurbitaceae.
17
In the beginning, it was not easy because we had
to go and look for these companies to offer our
services of pollination, now this companies had
grown so much we need more bees to cover theirs
needs because there are not enough beekeepers in
this area to provide the pollination service.
18
Cucurbitaceaes
19
Im just a beekeeper that wanted to share
something with you and learn more about everyone
else that is in this business.
Thank you very much