HomeGrown: Bee population in Yuma County
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - It's that time of year when bees are buzzing around Yuma County looking to pollinate local melons.
The University of Arizona says bees are the most important pollinators in agriculture.
One Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Dr. Samuel Discua Duarte, says honeybees pollinate about one of every three bites of food that we eat.
In Yuma, they pollinate many melon crops and seed crops.
"Here you can see this cantelope field that is being pollinated by honeybees. They are in those white boxes, each one of those boxes contains a beehive. During the spring, around May, June, you'll see beehives around also for the for the seat props for broccoli seed crops. You'll see the highs around January February and then in the fall for the fall melons around September October."
Dr. Samuel Duscua Duarte, Post-Doctorial Research Associate, University of Arizona
Duarte says bees are generally safe.
They will not sting you unless you get too close to their hives, or if you get in the flight path they take when they're going into the beehive, which is called the bee-line.
