"Thos" wrote in message
m...
Good grief. This kind of response is ridiculous.
Neither apples or honeybees are native to North America
Really??


REALLY!!!! Then pray tell me why orchardists pay beekepers thousands of
dollars every blooming season.


There are bees pollinating plants and crops everywhere.
How in the world did Thomas Jefferson manage to pollinate his gorgeous
gardens almost 200 years ago?

Honeybees were first brought here by the pilgrams, by T. Jefferson's time
there were thousands of escaped "wild" colonies. If you do a tiny bit of
real research you'll find that almost all large fruit farmers at the time og
Jefferson were beekeepers as well.

Yes, the bees were brought from Europe, but
they adapted with no problem. There are bees, and yes people use
pesticides but there are other insects that pollinate as well. Not just
honeybees. You can actually hand pollinate also, but not knowing the size
of your trees, that may not be possible.
Becoming a bee keeper is completely another discipline, and falls into the
category of "the more you learn, the more you learn you don't know". My
advice would be to just plant the trees and let nature take it's course.
Don't overthink it.
What zone are you in?


Which book did you get your information from? Mine came from the "book of
life", I've actually done it. I wouldn't presume to comment had I not.
"Steve Peek" wrote in message
...

"Ted Shoemaker" wrote in message
...
What pollinates apples, besides bees?

I'd like to plant apple trees -- only a couple -- in my yard.

If I must have honeybees, then I'll look into the details of that.
But honeybees, who wander far, are likely to run into insecticides. I
live in a city, next to lots of neighbors and even a school. There's
no way to prevent them all from using bug-killer.

Thank you!

Ted Shoemaker

You're going to need honeybees. Neither apples nor honeybees are native
to North America, so there's no specific pollinator for the apples. Other
insects will work the blossoms, so pollination may occur but I would
expect the fruiting to be spotty.