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Pollination must occur for an apple tree to bear fruit. Between
April and May, apple buds blossom with pink flowers, and bees
are moved into orchards to begin the pollination process. The
bees are brought at nighttime, because by that time, the bees
have all returned to the hive.
 Bees
are attracted to the smell and the color of apple blossoms, which contain
the sweet nectar which they require. Bees fly from flower to flower in
search of nectar; the pollen on the flowers sticks to the bees' hair and
is carried to the next flower. This transfer of pollen is pollination.
Each blossom that is to produce an apple must be fertilized. During the
day, the bees fly from blossom to blossom, storing the nectar that they
use to make honey when they return to the hive. While they are collecting
nectar, they also collect pollen.
Apple blossoms create pollen from the stamen. Pollen sticks
to the bees and it is also stored in pollen baskets on their
legs. The pollen that is stuck to the bee from one flower, travels
on the bee where it is collected by the pistil of another apple
blossom. Once the blossom is pollinated, an apple can grow.
 Most
apples must be "cross-pollinated"a blossom must receive the
pollen from a different variety of apple in order for fertilization to
occur and an apple to be produced. For example, a McIntosh cannot pollinate
a McIntosh.
Growers have experimented with transferring pollen by hand,
spraying pollen onto blossoms, dumping from helicopters, and
even using shotguns with pollen-filled cartridges, but bees continue
to be the best pollination method. The most important reason
for this is that blossoms, on even a single tree, open at different
times, and bees are on constant duty in the orchard, seeking
out the blossoms that are ready.
To increase the effectiveness of the bees, blossoms are collected
in the spring and pollen is extracted. This pollen is then frozen,
and, the next season, it is put in trays inside the beehive.
As bees leave the hive, they are doused with the pollen. This
increases chances of pollination.
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