The importance of bees in agriculture

In this week’s Home Grown segment we take a look at the role of our local bees. Most people may not know that bees have a huge impact on our local agriculture.

Dean Edwards is the manager of Priority Pollination and he helps take care of the nearly 4600 colonies used in the fields in the Yuma area.

“Ever since I started here I’ve learned so much about bees and how important they are to agriculture…what we do is we get a call from the grower that needs hives for pollination and we’ll set them in their fields and right now we are going on a 28-day schedule for cantaloupes,” Edwards said.

You have probably seen white boxes along the side of the road near a field, those are the beehives.

In Yuma, over 9,000 colonies are set out, which are used between January and May, the peak season for honeybees.

Did you know that in one bee colony there are between 25,000 and 30,000 bees?

Growers use bees to pollinate crops like broccoli and cauliflower seed crops, watermelon and cantaloupes.

Each crop determines how many hives are needed per acre. For example, a broccoli field may need five hives versus a cantaloupe field might only need one. This is because there is more bloom in the broccoli field.

If you want to try some of the fresh honey these local bees make you can find some at Dandy Home and Ranch. You can also find some at The Farm and Berryman Farms Date Shop, but those are closed for the summer and will open back up again in September.