 Pollinator decline Crops that traditionally have had managed pollination include apple, almonds, pears, some plum and cherry varieties, blueberries, cranberries, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, alfalfa seeds, onion seeds, and many others. Some crops that have traditionally depended entirely on chance pollination by wild pollinators need pollination management nowadays to make a profitable crop.  Some crops, especially when planted in a monoculture situation, require a very high level of pollinators to produce economically viable crops  . This may be because of lack of attractiveness of the blossoms, or from trying to pollinate with an alternative when the native pollinator is extinct or rare. These include crops such as alfalfa, cranberries, and kiwifruit. This technique is known as saturation pollination. In many such cases, various native bees are vastly more efficient at pollination (e.g., with blueberries), but the inefficiency of the honey bees is compensated for by using large numbers of hives, the total number of foragers thereby far exceeding the local abundance of native pollinators. In a very few cases, it has been possible to develop commercially viable pollination techniques that use the more efficient pollinators, rather than continued reliance on honey bees, as in the management of the alfalfa leafcutter bee  .
While people think first of the European honey bee when pollination comes up, in fact there are many different means of pollination management that are used, both other insects and other mechanisms. There are other insects commercially available that are more efficient, like the blue orchard bee for for fruit and nut trees, local bumblebees better specialized for some other crops, hand pollination that is essential for production of hybrid seeds and some greenhouse situations, and even pollination machines. Pollinator decline Crops that traditionally have had managed pollination include apple, almonds, pears, some plum and cherry varieties, blueberries, cranberries, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, alfalfa seeds, onion seeds, and many others. Some crops that have traditionally depended entirely on chance pollination by wild pollinators need pollination management nowadays to make a profitable crop. Many of these were at one time universally turning to honeybees, but as science has shown that honeybees are actually inefficient pollinators, demand for other managed pollinators has risen. While honeybees may visit dozens of different kinds of flowers, diluting the orchard pollen they carry, the Blue orchard bee will visit only the intended tree, producing a much higher fertilization rate. The focus on the specific tree also makes the orchard bee 100 times more efficient at pollinating, per bee.The Blue Orchard BeeA female lives about 20 days and provisions about two to six nests. So 1,800 flower trips x 7 eggs x 6 nests = more than 75,000 flower trips in her life, making BOBs about 100 times more efficient than honeybees. BOBs pollinate 97 percent of the flowers they visit. Some crops, especially when planted in a monoculture situation, require a very high level of pollinators to produce economically viable crops , especially if depending on the more generalized honeybee . This may be because of lack of attractiveness of the blossoms, or from trying to pollinate with an alternative when the native pollinator is extinct or rare. These include crops such as alfalfa, cranberries, and kiwifruit. This technique is known as saturation pollination. In many such cases, various native bees are vastly more efficient at pollination (e.g., with blueberries), but the inefficiency of the honey bees is compensated for by using large numbers of hives, the total number of foragers thereby far exceeding the local abundance of native pollinators. In a very few cases, it has been possible to develop commercially viable pollination techniques that use the more efficient pollinators, rather than continued reliance on honey bees, as in the management of the alfalfa leafcutter bee . In the case of the kiwifruit, its flowers do not even produce nectar, so that honeybees are reluctant to even visit them, unless present in such overwhelming numbers that they do so incidentally .
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While people think first of the European honey bee when pollination comes up, in fact there are many different means of pollination management that are used, both other insects and other mechanisms. There are other insects commercially available that are more efficient, like the blue orchard bee for for fruit and nut trees, local bumblebees better specialized for some other crops, hand pollination that is essential for production of hybrid seeds and some greenhouse situations, and even pollination machines.
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Many of these were at one time universally turning to honeybees, but as science has shown that honeybees are actually inefficient pollinators, demand for other managed pollinators has risen. While honeybees may visit dozens of different kinds of flowers, diluting the orchard pollen they carry, the Blue orchard bee will visit only the intended tree, producing a much higher fertilization rate. The focus on the specific tree also makes the orchard bee 100 times more efficient at pollinating, per bee.The Blue Orchard BeeA female lives about 20 days and provisions about two to six nests. So 1,800 flower trips x 7 eggs x 6 nests = more than 75,000 flower trips in her life, making BOBs about 100 times more efficient than honeybees. BOBs pollinate 97 percent of the flowers they visit.
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, especially if depending on the more generalized honeybee
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. In the case of the kiwifruit, its flowers do not even produce nectar, so that honeybees are reluctant to even visit them, unless present in such overwhelming numbers that they do so incidentally