he country is full of apple orchards. Apple orchards are where the apples you buy in the grocery store come from. Applesauce is made out of apples grown in orchards. People who drink apple juice and apple cider enjoy the produce supplied by the hardworking orchard owners. Without apple orchards there would be no apple pies. The world would be a sadder place without apple orchards.

In the springtime people drive past apple orchards and see tidy row after tidy row of apple trees, their spreading boughs fragrant with the scent of fragile apple blossoms. In the summertime they can drive past the same orchard and see the same trees, leaves shining in the sunshine. In the fall those same trees are laden with apples, crunchy and full of juice. In the wintertime, the spreading limbs of the apple trees spread wide and are blanketed with a layer of glittering snow. When they stop to admire the artistic trees they observe that not like other sorts of agriculture endeavors the only time they see anyone working amongst the trees is when the trees are heavy with fruit and the farmers are picking the apples. It doesn’t take very long for the passer bys to start looking at how easy it may be to have an orchard. When the opportunity to purchase an apple orchard comes along, these people are able to hardly walk faraway from the opportunity.

The truth is that there is a lot more to owning an apple orchard then picking apples and pulling in money.

The casual passerby thinks that owning an apple orchard will not be much work, the truth is that a great deal of backbreaking labor goes into maintaining the orchard. The trees need to be pruned. The trees need to be sprayed to safeguard them from being ravished by insects. Additionally looking after the trees there is a lot of general maintenance jobs that need to be taken care of. There is also the task of getting rid of the old, unproductive trees and exchanging them with young trees.

The next thing to think about when purchasing an apple orchard is the size of the orchard. According to the professionals an apple orchard has to be at least ten acres large as a way to break even. That’s just breaking even. In theory a bigger orchard means a bigger profit margin for the orchard owner, but a bigger orchard also implies that the owner must buy more insecticide, rotate more trees, hire more employees, and spend extra money on the equipment needed to conserve the orchard and harvest the apple crop.

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Perhaps the largest error newcomers to the apple orchard business make in the spring time when the apple trees are in bloom. In order for the trees to bear fruit the flowers need to be pollinated. Although the wind can help pollinate the flowers, honey bees are better. Many new orchard owners think that there are sufficient bees in the wild to pollinate the acres of apple trees. These owners are making an assumption that could harm their yearly yield. Experienced owners recognize that to make sure they get a profitable harvest they need to work on local beekeepers. They lease the hives and the honey bees from the beekeepers. The hive owners set up the hives in the orchards. The extra bees assist in the pollination.

The springtime is the time when honeybees reproduce. The natural means of reproduction for honey bees is called swarming. The springtime swarming period typically last about three weeks. Generally a single swarm of honey bees divide and becomes two during the swarming period.

Because swarming typically means a loss of production so beekeepers try to discourage the behavior. One way that beekeepers get rid of swarming in their hives is by buying new bees each spring to replace their previous bees that they presented of the hives the last fall. Another method commonly used by beekeepers to discourage swarming is the production of a starter colony. Making a starter hive and then splitting it encourages bees to stay in their hives. Some beekeepers think that bees only swarm when they have an abundance of food in the hive. Beekeepers who subscribe to this theory use a method called checker boarding to discourage their bees from swarming. When a beekeeper checkerboards their hives they remove some of the full frames of honey, giving the bees the illusion that they don’t have any honey in reserve, and as a consequence discouraging the bees from swarming.

It is unusual for bees to swarm when there is a new queen in the bee hive. As time passes and the Queen ages is when the hive typically prepares to swarm, generally the elderly queen leaves with the primary swarm, leaving a virgin queen in her place. When the elderly queen is preparing to swarm with the primary swarm she stops laying eggs. She concentrates on getting fit enough to fly when she leaves the hive (the only other time the queen has flown is when she got together on her nuptial flight). When smaller swarms leave the hive they are commonly accompanied by the virgin queen.

When they first leave the hive in a swarm, bees don’t typically go far from the hive they have always known. After fleeing the nest the bees settle on a nearby tree branch or under an eave. The worker bees cluster around the queen, protecting her. Once they have the queen protected, some bees, scouts, look around until they find a fitting hive to turn into their new home.

Some beekeepers see swarming as a method to restock their hives. A seasoned bee keeper has no problem capturing a group of swarming bees. Beekeepers use a device to called a Nasrove Pheromone to lure swarming honey bees.

When they swarm, honey bees carry no additional food with them. The only honey they are allowed to take from the mother or father hive is the honey they consumed.

Although honey bees normally swarm only during the spring the same is not true of Africanized Bees, also called Killer Bees. The Africanized Bees swarm whenever they have a tough time finding food.

Beekeeping Resources