The orchard is a nice fit with bee keeping.
Each spring we move at least one colony of bees into the orchard to ensure good pollination. This practice along with a good spraying plan to control fungus, apple scab and other issues has helped us improve yields and fruit quality.
But to be sure, apple are challenging. If we have a late frost during blossom time, yields can be greatly impacted. Too much rain and wind and we lose branches if not trees. Too little rain and the quality of the fruit is impacted. Take a week off at the wrong time and the Japanese beetles attack. It’s farming!
That said, with most everything we do here at the farm the fruits of the labor are well worth that labor. Especially when it's fun.
[Pictured: One of our Springboro Tree Farms bees hard at work in the orchard.]
