1/30/08 Blue Bee

Blue Bee. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. With the mysterious onset of the honeybee's colony collapse disorder or CCD it's interesting to find a U.S. native that can do at least part of the honeybees job. The Blue Orchard Bee. Research has been going on for quite a number of years regarding the blue bee according to ARS researcher, Dr. Theresa Pitts-Singer. She says since it's a native there are fewer problems. PITTS-SINGER: What's beneficial about this bee is that it's a native bee, it belongs in the U.S. The honeybee is an old world bee that was brought over with the pilgrims so this is a native bee, it belongs here  out west and it prefers to forage on trees and flowers that are like fruit trees in the Rosaceae family. So they are a bit picky when it comes to pollination. Apples, apricots, almonds and cherries. The blue bee is not as susceptible to some of the issues surrounding the honeybee. PITTS-SINGER: They are not affected at all as far as we know. We don't know what CCD is but they really share diseases in common with the honeybee and they also don't have the same lifecycle whatsoever. They're a solitary bee versus a colonial bee; you know a social bee like the honeybee. You don't have a lot of foragers going out and doing all the work and bringing food back for the babies that only one queen is making in the nest. She is currently working with a team of researchers to develop a way to time the emergence of the bee with an orchards flowering. PITTS-SINGER: In order to get the bee to kind of work out in the field you have to get the bees to come out of their cocoon. So it's not like a honeybee hive where you bring a bunch of adults that are already existing in a hive. You bring cocoons to the field or they are already naturally existing and you want them to hatch out. And they have to have enough heat to hatch out. And also when you have them hatch out you want them to hatch out all at once. More tomorrow on the blue bee. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.