05-19-06: One of Pennsylvania's most important labor forces is currently hard at work in the state's orchards and fields, helping to ensure the success of crops worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

These workers are honey bees, and without them -- and the people who keep and manage them -- Pennsylvania's bountiful crops of apples, peaches, soybeans, pears, pumpkins, cucumbers, cherries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries would not be possible.

"Despite many challenges, Pennsylvania's beekeepers continue to provide critical pollination services to the state's fruit and vegetable industries," says Maryann Frazier, Penn State Cooperative Extension apiculture (bee and beekeeping) specialist.

"For instance, the state's $45 million apple crop -- the fourth largest in the country -- is completely dependent on insects for pollination, and 90 percent of that pollination comes from honey bees," she says. "So the value of honey bee pollination to apples is about $40 million."

In total, honey bee pollination contributes about $55 million to the value of crops in the state, according to Frazier.