I am first year beek in SE Texas. I have a few friends with blueberry farms. I am looking for any information about pollination of blueberries.
Can you give us some more details please? How big of a crop are you planting? This will dictate how many hives you need.
Number of hives required
The number of honey bee hives required to pollinate blueberry crops varies considerably. According to the plant variety and pollination requirements, hive density in blueberry crops varies between 1.25 and 5 hives per hectare.
Hives are introduced at 5% flowering and remain until petals begin to drop. A general guide to honey bee population numbers in the crop is 2 bees per metre of row is considered satisfactory.
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/84410/pf157-honeybee-pollination-of-blueberries.pdf (http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/84410/pf157-honeybee-pollination-of-blueberries.pdf)
One farm is about 7 acres with approximately 11,000 plants. All are second year plants, about knee high. I have heard a few other bee keepers mention that bees can do a lot of work and not get much out of it. Like something about the shape of the bloom is not very bee friendly. Does any of that make any sense to y'all?
You are not going to need much pollination for 2 year old plants. Remember bees will hot 2 million flowers on average to make just 1 pound of honey. You make your money by just putting the bees there for them.