A special type of bee [Melipona bee] naturally pollinates
vanilla beans, but since it only exists in Mexico, we carry out
hand pollination of the vanilla orchids once the yellow vanilla flower blooms, and it is open for only a few hours
and only on one day of the year. We hand-pollinate each flower individually using toothpicks to produce vanilla beans.
This is a time-sensitive process that requires immediate action because the vanilla flower blooms and only opens for a few hours, if the flower falls, this means waiting until the next flowering in about one year’s
time.