CALGARY - Wild thing. You make my crops spring. An international
study involving a University of Calgary researcher has found
that managed honey bees aren't nearly as successful at
pollinating as their uncultivated cousins. "It seems to be more
about quality than quantity of pollen that's delivered," said
Lawrence Harder, professor in the department of biological
sciences in the University of Calgary's science faculty.
Researchers examined data from 41 different types of crops in 20
countries to determine if adding extra regular honey bees would
help with pollination. "We're talking about things like
tomatoes, apples, cherries and coffee. They're things that kind
of make our diets interesting," Harder said. "It's a common
practice to add honey bees to the field. We looked at the extent
to whether more honey bees would be good and if honey bees
aren't good would having more wild insects be better?" Harder
said the results show that adding extra honey bees was only
helpful in 14 instances, but there was an impr