Effect of hive placement, surrounding landscape, and percent bloom on honeybee fidelity to cranberry

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) provide essential pollination services to Wisconsin cranberry growers. Cranberry flowers are pollinator dependent; however, pollination is variable on commercial systems, across years and marshes. Colony needs and availability alternative pollen and nectar sources will influence whether honeybees forage on cranberry pollen. We measured honeybee pollen composition at three hive locations (near wild habitat, near a water reservoir, and the center of a marsh) and investigated its association between land-use intensity (high woodland vs. low woodland) at landscape scale and percent bloom of surrounding cranberry. Given proximity to additional resources, hives near wild habitat at marshes with high surrounding woodland were expected to have lower fidelity to cranberry.  Preliminary results from this study supports the importance of local farm practices and surrounding landscape attributes to honeybee pollination services.