Pollinating strawberries in a poly tunnel

[bontbee]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience of the above, please?

I have been asked to provide stocks for a new pick your own site and have been doing some research with very different answers.

The two extremes are:

a) bees can't cope with polytunnels/greenhouses

b) bees will work in the aforementioned, but are best with two entrances - one to the outside and one into the polytunnel...?!

Any advice very gratefully received, thank you in anticipation

 

[For want of a better word]

Our Tamar Valley strawberry growers import bumble bees to do the pollination.
They are supposed to die out at the end of the season and not overwinter.

I am sure that our own honeybees do do some strawberry pollination out in the open... but it is too hot in the polly tunnels for them.

 

[Ian123]

If you dont get any positive answers i can ask a friend if hes happy for me to pass on his number, he used to do a lot for growers and am fairly certain a lot of poly tunnels involved. You can drop me a pm

 

[Finman]

.
Strawberry's optimum temperature is 20C.
Pollinators of strawberry are arranged to spread antimold microbia, which kill grey mold from flowers.

 

[citrus]

If you dont get any positive answers i can ask a friend if hes happy for me to pass on his number, he used to do a lot for growers and am fairly certain a lot of poly tunnels involved. You can drop me a pm

I helped my mentor put some bees on a surrey blueberry plantation but the poly tunnels where the strawberries were .. they were generally done by bumblebees

 

[Hivemaker.]

I have mesh screens which I put in the poly tunnel doorways when the doors are open, otherwise the bees just go in there and die trying to get out.

 

[Ian123]

Will pm his house number when home, he’s done the lot under glass and am sure he will be a mine of info

 

[madasafish]

Friend has polytunnel in allotment where she keeps bees. Honeybees fly up to the light. To get them out you need exits in the roof and at ends. But still many die..

Not very satisfactory on cool days as the polytunnel loses warm air from the entrances.Basically a setup which kills honey bees.

 

[Curly green fingers]

I've a friend who grows lots of strawberries and raspberries in tunnels last autumn we we're walking through both no honey bees on the strawberries but the raspberries we're covered in honey bees I noticed some dead bee's in the corners of the tunnels, he hasn't got honey bees they must of been local though .
Personally I wouldn't do it unless they were open sided and open entrances .

 

[Ian123]

Hi you now have a pm with his number hes happy to talk, if hes not a mine of info i will eat my hat. If i recall correctly he set up nucs and took these into tunnels/green house, as others have stated attrition rate is high. He then rotated in new nucs as and when, am sure he can give you pros and cons and idea for price

 

[foghornleghorn]

Bleeding the old flying bees from the nuc before going in is also recommended as the younger bees adjust better

 

[masterBK]

I believe Bee farmers ask for at least £105 per hive pollination fee for restricted flight crops under netting /polytunnels/ greenhouses

 

[Norton Caff]

I thought strawberries were pollinated by bumble bee buz pollination.

 

[Murox]

I thought strawberries were pollinated by bumble bee buz pollination.

Yes bumbles, solitary bees, flies, wind and A. mellifera .

 

[Jimmy]

There was an article in the BFA journal in April 2018 about a beefarmer (Ollie Lintott, Liphook, Hampshire) who has 100+ colonies in glasshouses/polytunnels.
For polytunnels he places colonies at the open end of the tunnels and gets a stable income (£50 per hive) from the pollination fee. Glasshouses command a higher rate (£115)

 

[bontbee]

Many thanks for the contact Ian - very, very helpful indeed! Thank you

 

[Ian123]

No problem told you he was good!!! i had not seen him for a while but had driven past his house and called in for a cuppa the day i saw your post, so he sprung to mind. Am glad it helped!!!!

 

[Into the lions den]

Bit of a con trick by beekeepers. Strawberries are best by far to be done by bumbles. Honeybees on strawberries are desperate.

Raspberries exactly the opposite...honey bees love them and will pollinate well, but MUST be high tunnels or they will not go far and many bees will be lost.

On strawberries it is a waste of the farmers money. Nice work if they are giving it away however........

 

[bontbee]

Thank you to all for your input and helpful comments. All very much appreciated.