The unusually cold May climate, filled with frost warnings and nights dipping into the upper 20s and low 30s, has been preventing some bees from pollinating.

Nikki Rothwell, director of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Resource Station, said bees prefer warmer conditions. But with tart cherry trees in bloom, it’s a crucial time for pollination.

“Cherries are only susceptible for about six days,” she said. “So even if the blooms look visible out there, the reproductive parts aren’t able to produce a cherry.”

Jerry Brandt, who owns a cherry orchard on Herman Road near Suttons Bay High School, said his sweet cherries have taken shape very well but it’s too early to tell with the balatons and tarts.

Balaton cherries don’t pollinate as easily as the other varieties, he explained, which is why he has been using more bees than usual.

Even though the bees aren’t buzzing much, Brandt said he isn’t expecting a crop year even close to 2002, when cherry farmers lost significant amounts of their crop.

“I’m expecting a pretty decent year. It’s just a matter of how much pollination we will get with the cold,” he said. “We just don’t know yet, but I’m optimistic.”

May is “buildup” time for bee populations, said Julius Kolarik, who manages roughly 700 hives. Usually, bees can be seen hanging on the outside of the hive and buzzing around the orchards, but this spring buildup time has been limited by cold weather, he said.

“They haven’t been able to get it (buildup time). They get a half a day to fly and bring in pollen and nectar, then they are in the hive for two days.”

Cold weather has caused lack in hive productivity in the past, but this spring the cold seems to be hanging on longer than usual, Kolarik said. But he said the bees will prevail.

“The hive is still going to survive but they will lose some brood, baby bees, and then start building up again once it warms up,” he said.

This year, the average high and low temperatures for the month of May are slightly lower than years past, according to the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station. But the May 2008 average high and low temperatures are slightly higher than in 2002.

Not all cherry trees in the county are on the same page. Rothwell said that cherry trees near the research station in Bingham Township, where temperatures are recorded, are almost a week ahead of trees in Northport.

But the whole region has been colder than usual. Last week, a home owner from Kalkaska called Rothwell and told her that he was going to pollinate his cherry trees with a cotton swab, a practice Rothwell said is common in China. She prefers counting on Mother Nature instead.

An abundant supply of cotton swabs, however, is not what the county needs.

“We need warm weather, warm sunny weather because the apples are coming into bloom, too, and hopefully we will have better pollinating weather for those,” Rothwell said.