The Buzz About Our Seasonal Help

Hives of honeybees lend a hand each spring at Arbor Day Farm

WITH AN APPLE ORCHARD THAT SPANS MORE THAN 20 ACRES, Arbor Day Farm takes pollination seriously. That’s why the orchard staff brings in as many as 50,000 honeybees from a local beekeeper in mid-April each year.

These tiny temporary employees are critical to the success of the orchard, and they are a natural choice for the job. “There are a lot of different pollinators. You have wind, insects, birds. But historically, a honeybee is far and away the best kind of pollinator,” said Ben Heusinkvelt, grounds and orchard manager at Arbor Day Farm. “A honeybee will fly to every flower in its sight before moving to a different area. So you know the bee will land on maybe 50 to 60 flowers on a tree before it moves to the next tree.”

The exact timing of their arrival is completely up to nature. “We usually bring them in when the buds on the trees are at the pink stage. When the flower buds are pink, that basically means the petals are about to open. You want to bring the bees in about a day or two before that happens so they can acclimate to the space. If they don’t know where they’re at, they’ll send out scouts to find flowers and map out the area. So it’s best to get them used to the area a little bit,” he said.

Once they arrive, the honeybees work sunup to sundown until the last of the apple trees is done blooming. A total of 22 different varieties of apple trees can be found throughout the orchard — all blooming at slightly different times — so the entire process takes approximately three weeks.

Interested in planting an apple orchard in your backyard? Head to arborday.org/backyardorchard to find information to help you get started.

The goal? A bumper crop of delicious apples. That’s why it’s so important that the bees are ready to get to work as soon as the first bloom bursts open — because that first flower is critical. Apple blossoms appear in whorls (or clusters) of five, with the center flower being the first to unfurl. According to Ben, “the first blossom to bloom is called the king blossom. And that’s going to bear the best apple out of that cluster of flowers. And you really don’t want to miss the king blossom pollination.”

Once these busy little bees have made their way through the orchard, they punch their timecards and head back to their home field … a job well done. The fruits of their labor will then ripen each fall, creating apple-picking memories at Arbor Day Farm that will last a lifetime.