I am a recent Hawai'ian immigrant.
Our property had a few young fruit trees on it when we bought it.
I have added a few more since purchasing it, citrus, avocados and Sapindaceae types with others in mind if I can get the pollinator problem figured out.
The previous owner said something about one of the existing orange trees getting many blossoms but producing very little fruit.
Since being here, I have noticed that the citrus and avocado trees flower profusely but set little to no fruit.
Most fruit that does set end up aborting early on.
We have a high rainfall [~150"/yr] and relatively thin soil over a lava rock base.
I have been working on building up the soil with cinders and mulch along with fertilizers and other conditioners.
The trees seem to be doing much better.
What I have noticed, is that I have seen only 3 honey bees in the 2 years we have been here.
That was last spring when the avocados were in bloom.
Honey bees are not native to the islands.
Word has it that feral hives have a very poor survival rate.
I am thinking about setting up an apiary to help my fruit trees out.
We also have a lilikoi [passion flower] that has a strange blooming / fruiting behavior.
It puts out many blossoms but sets no fruit early in the season.
If it does set fruit early in the season, it invariably aborts early and never ripens.
Later in the season, it does set some fruit that will ripen, but still very few flowers will end up producing fruit.
Carpenter bees, because of their size, to my thinking, are more likely to be the pollinators for the lilikoi.
I see very few carpenter bees around, in fact none so far this season.
I'm beginning to wonder if someone in the area might be spraying insecticides and affecting the pollinator population around here.
I spoke with a local beekeeper a year or so ago about the tree pollination problem.
He asked about his being able to set a hive on our property.
I said that I was more interested in setting up my own.
Now I'm beginning to think it might be a good idea for me to have someone set one up here and see how it does.
Then in a year or two, if theirs does well, set up my own.
Any thoughts or comments on dealing with this problem?
Welcome to Beemaster!
Ask him if he would set up a hive on your place, and if it did well could you have a split?
Ask him to set 2 hives on your property. Then ask that he works them when you are there to watch and help. Buy yourself a pollinatot jacket now, and be ready to follow him every time he looks into them. Ask questions every step of the way. It is the best way possible for you to get into beekeeping. Then when you are ready, set 2 of your own hives on the other side of your property, with his full knowledge and hopefully, help.
Welcome!
Welcome. I suggest you buy two hives from him and ask him to mentor and help you. That way, you are committed. :) You will be addicted very soon anyway. If you talk with him I suspect you can get your feet wet at his place before jumping in.
Hmmm.... Aloha!
I thought there would be plenty of bees there since there are some large commercial operations on the Islands. There are often help wanted ads for beekeepers in the Bee Journal. Perhaps one may be interested in a part time helper if you have the time.
If bees aren't native to the Islands, I suspect lack of bees is not the problem. Being a former haole from Oahu, I would advise doing whatever it takes to get those passion fruits going well.
And then send me some.
Aloha.
Voyager,
Welcome to BeeMaster.
I say try to buy 2 hives of your own.
Try to find someone who does not treat their bees. Who ever you buy from, find out what they are using to treat with. You will need to treat with the same chemicals. If they use terramycin, run. It is for treating American Foul Brood. It is probably in all of his hives just waiting for a chance to develop. You do not want to have to add antibiotics to your hives.
Jim
I'm with iddee. Let him set them up on the understanding you can tag along. Best way to l earn at no cost to you. Then if you decide to get a hive or two don't boot him.. :wink:
Hello! Welcome! Your place sounds heavenly! I too was surprised to hear about your lack of bees. I like the idea of the guy setting up a hive on your property for himself and one for you. You will want your own really soon, I am quite sure, and will want to touch and feel and see for yourself. lol Aloha! (so fun to say, like Jambo in Africa lol)
Hi
I am in Perth WA, have about 60 fruit trees and a home vegie patch on 30 acres. We originally got a hive to help with pollination as there were some bees around but not a lot. We now have 6 hives and have found this has made a massive difference to the amount of fruit we are getting. Most noticeably the fruit set on the passionfruit vine. Not sure if cold weather plays much of a part where you are but we found we had better success with mid to late fruiting trees and with the early blooming fruit trees the flowers would bloom but it was far too cold and the bees hadn't even left the hive. (we still get frost late September).
Good Luck
Thank you folks.
I think that I'll end up doing some variation of the suggestions that you have given me.
Next Saturday the local beekeeper organization has a do going.
http://www.bigislandbeekeepers.com/
I'll go to it and glean a bit more info there.
Then, UHH is having a 3 or 4 day beekeeping workshop next month.
http://hilo.hawaii.edu/academics/ccecs/BenefitsofBeekeeping.php
I'll get signed up for it Monday.
Then, I'll make contact with this outfit:
http://hawaiibee.com/
It is tied in with the people giving the workshop.
And finally, somewhere along the way, I'll make serious contact with the local beekeeper association.
That should get me headed in the right direction to get set up.
I would think.
I am looking forward to having my own hive or two to play with.
But, the fact that feral hives do not seem to survive very long around here makes me a bit leery about trying it.
It leads me to think that the climate works against them.
Keeping a hive healthy may be a bit difficult around here.
We'll see.
Thanks again.
EDIT:
You threw me for a second there turbo.
To me WA means Washington. I grew up there.
But, a town named, Perth didn't ring a bell.
Google Maps set me straight.
Cool weather doesn't apply here.
I'm at about 19* N in the middle of the Pacific at about 800'.
The coolest we saw last "winter" was about 63*F.
It's too warm to grow apples, pears, blueberries and all the other things I grew up with.
I moved here after living in Alaska for almost 35 years.
The coldest winter nighttime temps here are about like a warm summer day in Alaska.
I'm adapting to the heat very well, though.
Voyager,
Feral bees pretty much were decimated all across the U.S. It took almost 10 years for our bees to select the right genetics to survive the mites, SHB, and all of the virus' the the mite brought in.
Now we are finding more and more bees outside of domesticated hives.
The same thing happened in the late 1800 when the wax moth was introduced here. Today we really do not worry about them unless a hive gets weak.
Jim
Quote from: sawdstmakr on September 20, 2015, 10:23:36 AM
Voyager,
... Today we really do not worry about them unless a hive gets weak.
Jim
That does help my trepidations a bit.
I will need to check into it further, but I'm given to understand that the state of Hawai'i forbids the importation of any honeybees.
That would forclude the bringing into the state of queens that have desirable traits.
Admittedly, my knowledge of beekeeping is very slim. And, I may be worrying about a triviality. But, from what I have heard in passing so far about hive health problems around here, my suspicion is that state controls may be hindering the breeding of healthier colonies. Or, it may be nothing more than my distrust of corporations and government manifesting itself. I should be able to learn more when I attend that workshop next month.
I did sign up for the workshop today online. I'm in.