If you have been driving through the country side lately you might have seen something strange out in the fields. You may be seeing many orange and blue tarp tents. No, these are not (as my best friend and I once convinced her then 7 year old sister) boy scouts. They are actually bees! These bees are moved onto crop land (especially hybrid canola in this area) to pollinate the plants. According to the Canadian Honey Council over 80,000 colonies are needed to pollinate all the hybrid canola seeds in Alberta. They also say that plants that are pollinated with bees have a 3-8 times increased production and this increased production is valued at over 2 billion dollars a year. So as you can see these bees are very profitable to have around. And although the ‘boy scout’ tents may look awkward and out of place on a big, open field, they are actually housing the busiest workers on the place! info from: http://www.honeycouncil.ca/index.php/honey_industry_overview
No comments:
Post a Comment