POLLINATION

When conditions for flight are not ideal, honey bees work close to their colonies. Although they may fly as far as 5 miles in search of food, they usually go no farther than 1 to 1-1/2 miles in good weather. In unfavorable weather, bees may visit only those plants nearest the hive. They also tend to work closer to the hive in areas where there are large numbers of attractive plants in bloom.

Pollination of crops is a specialized practice, not just a sideline of honey production. Beekeepers who supply bees for pollination must learn the skills of management that are necessary for success in this phase of beekeeping. Bees for pollination should be placed within or beside the crop to be pollinated.

More than 100 agricultural crops in the United States are pollinated by bees. This means bees are important, if not essential, for the production of more than $15 billion worth of agricultural crops produced across the US. Examples of bee pollinated crops include watermelons, cantaloupe, citrus and apples. Although some of these crops are pollinated by bee species other than honey bees, honey bees are the only ones that can be easily managed, moved around and are known to exploit a wide variety of crops.

(http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/BEEKEEP/CHAPT8/chapt8.html)