Unfortunately, the pollination mechanisms of some Ohio crops are poorly understood, particularly in some modern hybrids and new varieties. A few crops have been investigated and the pollination requirements are well known. An example is the pickling cucumber, grown for machine harvest. In this case, bees provide nearly 100 percent of the pollination of cucumbers. The amount bees contribute to the pollination of other crops is sometimes less. For example, strawberries vary in their need for bee pollination. Some varieties need no bee pollination, while the "average" variety requires 24 percent insect pollination for complete seed set. The remainder is due to self-pollination. Strawberry growers usually have a crop of berries, but without bee pollination the quality is sometimes inferior to a crop produced with the aid of bee pollination.
With apples, bees are essential for cross-pollination. New varieties and cultural planting methods add new questions as to how apples are pollinated.
Some scientists have estimated that the dollar value of bee pollination is worth more than one billion dollars per year in the United States, when determined in value of crops involved. Such figures are often questioned for their accuracy because the methods used in arriving at them are unclear. For example, we would not ordinarily associate bee pollination with milk production, but we could, and probably should ask, "What would happen if forage crops such as legumes were no longer available for milk cows?" Yet we might argue that a dairy farmer could substitute another food material. But would the cost be the same? Such arguments make dollar values of pollination difficult to determine. Irregardless of such arguments, the contribution of bee pollination to the production of agricultural crops is considerable. Without this contribution, modern agriculture would be seriously affected.
There are areas where it is almost impossible to place a dollar value on bee pollination. One is the contribution that pollination of plants makes to wildlife food production. Another is the natural beauty resulting from pollination of wildflowers. Many shrubs and countless annual plants reproduce by bee pollinated berries and seed, which provide food for birds and other animals. Ornithologists may suggest that humans "feed the birds in the winter," but the birds also depend upon naturally grown seed and fruit resulting from bee pollination.
The beekeeper with a small scale operation is very valuable in providing honeybees for this unmeasured contribution to pollination, because there are many smalltime, hobbyist beekeepers spread throughout the state who increase food production for wildlife. Thus, it is difficult to place a dollar value on the enjoyment created by birds, wildflowers, and wild animals for the nature enthusiast.