such as Florida, Texas or California. However, hives are trucked in from all over the country, from states like Maine, New York, North Carolina, Washington, Idaho just to name a few. Many more beekeepers from colder areas are beginning to overwinter their hives in indoor cold storage. While not new, this practice has become more technologically advanced over the years and is a way to
within the hive as a mite treatment instead of using costly chemicals. From the cold storage facility, beekeepers can also select strong hives to split, taking one hive and splitting it in two to increase the number of hives in their operation. Records show that colonies that receive this special handling are “on average 2-3 frames larger in almond pollination, and about 95% of them are double deeps.”³
hold bees in hibernation at a steady temperature. Many beekeepers now view indoor storage as an “insurance policy”…they know that if they put healthy colonies into storage, the more likely they are to get healthy colonies out. This “insurance” aids the grand effort of providing enough hives to pollinate billions of almond blooms in California’s vast orchards. The practice is spreading and cold- weather states aren’t the only ones adopting this practice! A fourth generation beekeeping operation located in the desert of Southern California has started using cold storage to beat the heat during the hot summer months. After the bees pollinate almonds, they are brought back home to the Salton Sea to make honey during spring and early summer. Once the honey has been harvested and temperatures start rising by mid-summer (average daily temperatures of ~105°F), bees are prepped to be brought inside from the extreme heat. Artificial winter conditions offer safer and more comfortable temperatures for the crew to work in, and it is less labor-intensive for the beekeeper to manage dormant bees from one central location. This allows the beekeepers to inspect bees, assess colony strength, and utilize a brood break, where the queen stops laying eggs for a period of time, thus reducing the period when varroa can attack bee larvae
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