The pickers will not pick next to the bee hives as they do not have protective clothing. Either its me or the cherries fall. There is not much coffee directly around the hives and at the rate I pick, I am doing it for the love of the job and the learning. Every time I have done it - each time we pass through the farm every 8-10 days, there have been new experiences and new learnings.
Getting up close to the coffee trees, you see things very clearly. You can see how the weather is affecting the cherries - are the red ones swelling and splitting or are they small and hard. Also, the basic health of your plants. On a simple level getting a good yield is about keeping the leaves on the bushes. Fungal diseases of various kinds cause the leaves to drop, when the energy factory of the plant goes so does the ability to produce good fruit.