THE BEE BOX
Seed Pollination: What Americans Don’t Know
Several years ago, studies showed that approximately
70 percent of Americans know very little or next to
nothing about ranching and farming — presenting a
troubling disconnect of how food is produced and gets
to most of our tables. If people were to ask a further
question, that of how vegetable seeds are produced,
most would certainly not relate seed production to honey
bee pollination.
Right now, in Madras,
Oregon, carrot seed
production is at its
peak. With three
to four honey bee
colonies placed per
acre in fields for
pollination, this hybrid
seed production effort
takes a full year and
intense coordination
among growers to
isolate varieties from
each other since cross-
pollination must take
place only between
males and females of
the same variety. It is
the pollen from the male
that must be moved to
the female flower. This requires fields to be separated
at one mile away and growers must limit any possible
other “crops of interest” to honey bees. Oregon produces
70 percent of all the carrot seed crops in the global
market. Demand for honey bee colonies is strong enough
that carrot seed pollination demands the second largest
payout per colony, about $100, just behind almond
pollination contracts of around $200 per colony.
These carrot hybrids are planted in late summer and then
pollinated one year later in July. Honey bee colonies are
usually left in the fields for six weeks starting in July, and
then the seeds are dried and harvested in September of
that same year. Alternating rows of male plants (pollen
bearers) and female plants are planted with usually two
to four rows of males to five or more rows of female
plants. These hybrid carrot plants look very familiar. Wild
carrot, also known as Queen Anne’s Lace, is found along
most roadsides and vacant fields and appear strikingly
similar. Another carrot family (Apiaceae) of note is poison
hemlock that also bears some similarity to the wild and
hybrid carrot plants and was the reported cause of death
for Socrates.
Because carrots need
dry, warm days and
cool nights, they do
well in the high desert
environment of Madras
where rain is very
limited between March
and October. Requiring
drip or sprinkler
irrigation, this dry
country brings with it the
hazard of fires and it is
very common to see hay
and grass seed being
dried immediately next
to carrot fields and fire
warnings are carefully
monitored.
Our Bee Informed
Technical Transfer
teams carefully monitor our beekeepers’ colonies at the
beginning of carrot pollination and at the end. Since
IN YOUR ORCHARD
Rows of carrots in Madras, male
flowers are white and female
flowers are greenish/yellow.
Photo Credit: Karen Rennich,
The Bee Informed Partnership
Honey bee on carrot. Photo credit:
Karen Rennich, The Bee Informed
Partnership
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A L M O N D F A C T S
