Since many of our pollinators are now scarce, we are more dependent on the honeybee for crop pollination. Pollination starts when a field bee crawls into a plant blossom seeking nectar. The honey bee is dusted with pollen. Then the field bee flies over to another blossom with the pollen in its hair. When the bee lands, the pollen falls onto this blossom's stigma allowing a fruit, vegetable or other crop to grow.
Farmers often rent colonies of bees to pollinate their crops.
Even though other insects pollinate crops too, honeybees are one of the few that are synchronized and managed with the development of crops. If honeybees didn't pollinate, some crops wouldn't be able to grow. Without the pollination from the bees there would be one third less crops in the world than there is now. This page has been accessed times since July 21, 1997.