Local honeybees make more than honey on East End farms 

A drive east from Riverhead and a ferry trip to Shelter Island and back and then on to Orient at this time of year passes fields bathed in a sea of bright blooms. Flitting from flower to flower, too small to see from the roads, are multitudes of pollinators. 

“The presence of the bees allows the fruit or the vegetable that’s being grown to actually be fully fertilized,” said Chris Kelly, owner of the North Fork’s Promise Land Apiaries. “That’s what that pollination does. Fully fertilizes it. So then you have the best shape and quality fruit or vegetable that the farmer could hope for.”

Sylvester Manor Farm Manager Arielle Gardner notes that bees play a vital role in agriculture and our food system as key pollinators. “It’s estimated,” Ms. Gardner said, “that more than a third of the food we eat depends on the work of honey bees and other pollinators.”

As female worker bees collect nectar and pollen to feed their colonies, they unintentionally transfer pollen between flowers, Ms. Gardner said, with tiny hairs on their bodies picking up pollen from one flower and depositing it on another, which is essential for plant reproduction.

Apiaries, as bee farms are known, bring their hives to where the blooms are. Beekeepers will transport the structures to the orchards and fields just before the blooms open, to increase the plants’ exposure. The natural life cycle of the bees means that hive population peaks at the same time as the spring bloom, allowing for maximum pollination. 

“They will call me when the buds are just swelling, before they actually come into bloom. And then we’ll bring the bees in for the peaches [so they are there] when they’re in bloom,” said Mr. Kelly. “I have some great relationships with a fair number of the farms out here. It’s varying levels of needs, whether it’s for fruit trees or vegetables.”

“The pollination process leads to larger harvests of higher quality crops, supporting more sustainable farming methods,” Ms. Gardner said. “Additionally, for certain crops, especially fruits with a limited shelf life, pollination by bees can extend how long they stay fresh, helping to reduce food waste.”

The Manor’s farm manager cited experts who have discovered that native bees are particularly effective at cross-pollinating flowering fruit plants, often resulting in better quality fruit that lasts longer. 

“Bees also pollinate grasses and flowering natives that support our livestock programs and the natural inhabitants of the Manor’s property as a whole,” Ms. Gardner said.

Lucy Senesac, manager at Sang Lee Farms in Peconic, explained that some plants have both male and female flowers. Without pollinators, human intervention is necessary to make sure the female flowers are fertilized and fruits grow.

“With zucchini, there are two different kinds of flowers on the plant,” Ms. Senesac said. “The male flowers are on a little stem, and that’s actually what you use for zucchini blossoms that people eat. And then there’s another flower on the plant where the little zucchini grows.” 

There are even some fruits that need to be pollinated multiple times in order to be viable, such as watermelons.

“When you have the bees pollinating plants, some plants need more than one time to pollinate for the fruits to take really good hold. It gets a much bigger volume of fruit from this,” said Ken Robinson of North Fork Honey.

Without bringing honeybees on to the farms, pollination is left to native pollinators and the wind. With native pollinators in decline, the honeybees give the farmer more control. Some plants can be hand pollinated, but this is not feasible at scale.

“Natural pollination is not as effective, only in the sense that the there is really a shortage of native bees, largely due to the loss of habitat,” Mr. Kelly said. 

The Promise Land hives stay at the farm while the orchards and other crops are blooming. Once the flowers pass, Mr. Kelly brings them to their summer grounds to continue making honey. 

“I only leave the hives in those orchards during that bloom,” said Mr. Kelly. “So there’s a very focused time that the bees are in the orchard, which is when they’re in bloom, and that blossom is the predominant food for these bees for a pretty short period of time; two or three weeks, and then it’s over,” 

The summer sites have locust trees and wildflowers. Mr. Kelly sometimes uses these open clearings as wintering grounds as well.

Mr. Robinson, on the other hand, leaves some hives in place at farms all year long. A bee will travel up to three miles from its hive to gather nectar, so as long as they continue to thrive they can remain in place. 

“I keep hives there all year long. I keep them healthy throughout the winter, make sure that they’re having a nice house and dry, safe from predators, enough food stores to make it to winter,” Mr. Kelly said. 

Without the bees, farmers would be facing much smaller yields and potentially inferior fruit.

“It really is about relationship,” said Mr. Kelly. “You see the excellence of our East End farmers. They really are about the best of the best. They take care of their land. They take care of their crops.”

Complex, but also really simple, Ms. Gardner said summing it up. “Bees, plus farming, equals essential!”

Local honeybees make more than honey on East End farms