Pollinators

With spring so comes buds, then leaves, then flowers.  Without insect pollinators no berry production occurs.  Here are a couple of links to articles of which haskap growers should be aware.  These cover pollination, pollinators, and bee loss...

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/farming_for_bees_guidelines_xerces_society.pdf

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/bees-may-get-hooked-on-neonicotinoid-pesticides-1.3044237

Pollination Researcher To Speak At 2014 AGM Morning Session

Ms. Danae Frier is currently a M.Sc. candidate at the University of Regina, supervised by Dr. Cory Sheffield (Royal Saskatchewan Museum) and Dr. Chris Somers (University of Regina).  She is studying the pollination biology of Lonicera caerulea.  She will deliver a brief talk on the subject, addressing what is already known about floral pollinators and the research planned for the upcoming summer, which will help identify which bees are the best pollinators of the crop.

Her former experience and education as a biologist has included: museum collections, burrowing owls, blue racers, and prairie rattlesnakes.

In An Effort To Save Pollinators In Europe...

Use of neonicatinoid pesticides has now been banned in the EU in an effort to stop the decimation of its bee populations:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-457_en.htm