By VICTOR SKINNER
TRAVERSE CITY -- Darkness dominates Dave Nesky's spring routine, those pre-dawn and evening hours when he shuffles about 2,600 colonies of honey bees from local orchards to staging areas across northwest Michigan.
Beulah-based Nesky is among a handful of area beekeepers who rent hives to local farmers to pollinate crops such as cherries and apples during the late April and May blooms.
Nesky's bees seemed in good shape last week as he rounded up his remaining colonies, but he and area growers are troubled by a late freeze and unusually cool spring. At risk is 2008's fruit and honey haul.
"I think Mother Nature just didn't give us enough warm-degree days for the bees to get out during the pollination," said Nesky, partner with Sleeping Bear Apiaries. "You have to have at least a 50-degree day to get them out and moving. Pretty much half of (May) was below normal temperatures."
Agricultural experts with the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station in Leelanau County conducted about 60 visits to fruit farms during this year's cherry and apple blooms.
Their observations weren't encouraging, and hint at what could be a poor pollination season.
Fruit growers throughout the Grand Traverse region continue to asses damage from a late May frost, and many believe poor pollination could compound crop losses, said Nikki Rothwell, station coordinator and district horticulturist.
"We have done day-after-day of walks and very few things were flying. There was not much to see and it has been pretty cold," Rothwell said. "The pollination is more of a concern with sweet and tart cherries. I think the apples really got the brunt of the freeze."
The freeze also killed many of the plants bees use to kick-start the honey run. Workers with Sleeping Bear supplemented their hives with corn syrup, and remain hopeful the setback is temporary, Nesky said.
"The basswood and sumac froze right out," Nesky said. "Some of the hives are bone light. The plants will grow back; it just set us back about a month."
Frost damage is plainly visible in cherry and apple orchards, but pollination shortcomings won't be entirely evident until after underdeveloped fruit falls from the trees in June, said Julius Kolarik, a Northport beekeeper and fruit farmer.
"We are not quite there yet to see what is going to stay," Kolarik said, adding that some cherries have started showing signs of weak pollination. "Some trees we know are going to be dropping (fruit). They are not developing already, they're the size of peas."
Across Grand Traverse Bay, Nesky's bees are used to pollinate sweet cherries on the 220-acre Dave Kroupa Farms, said John Kroupa. Minimal bee activity for much of May is expected to bring lower yields from their Old Mission Peninsula orchards, though Kroupa remains optimistic.
"At this point what's done is done and the bees are out of the orchard," he said. "For us personally, it is kind of a minor worry because the market has sort of dropped out for maraschino cherries."
Frost dealt a blow to as much as half the apple crop at Evans Brothers Fruit Company near Frankfort, far overshadowing any pollination woes, said farmer Mark Evans.
"We had days during the bloom that were sufficient to do a good pollination," said Evans, who uses both standard honey bees and the more hardy bumble bee to pollinate. "I really believe overall we are worrying about it too much."
His suspicions of a weak pollination season aside, Kolarik believes nature has a way of working things out.
"When it is cooler, the blossoms stay out longer. They develop slower," he said. "There is a balance there because it gives the bees more time to work."
