Hello Bee Forum - LotÂs of great information here!!!

We live in the country, far from any man-made bee hives that I know of. We have a fair-sized small fruit patch and am trying to develop an orchard of approximately 100 trees. We have been told that we should be looking into mason bees, or buying/renting hives of honey bees. We further understand that the wild honey bee population has been decimated by a mite infestation.

This year, however, have noticed a major increase of honey bees in the young orchard. Bees are even working on pear blossoms, which in this area, they do not seem to favor.

I would like to know at lot more about the day to day working conditions & habits of bees. I have observed bees at work & read a lot of info on the internet - lot of info out there but none that I can locate gets to the heart of what I would like to know.

Possibly some here knows some links to information or has personal knowledge & experience along these questions:

1. What weather conditions to bees work in. Time of year they become active - either chronologically or biologically via Heating Degree Days etc. Is there a biological clock, i.e. after a certain species of plant blossoms in the spring? What effect does rain have on their activity? What effect does sunlight have - do they prefer to work in direct sunlight vs. shade - do they arise at sunrise, bed down at sunset?

2. What draws bees to the blossom initially; color, scent. Do they prefer certain colors over others etc. etc. Is there an odor or essence they are drawn to over others? I have noted color preferences in other insects - for example shot-hole borers are drawn to white etc.

3. Are bees series workers - for example, in my observations they seem to work on one specie at a time, i.e. working on a pear tree and flying past a cherry tree to work on another pear.

This year we need to make some decisions regarding future provisions for pollination - spring weather in this area is always crap-shoot and makes knowing the habits of pollinating insects all the more important to us.

It seems like at least the entomology departments of the "Land Grant Colleges" would have investigated these types of things. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would be grateful. Will continue to search this subject and will share info back if this is of interest to others,

Thank you - Dave Steele