IN YOUR ORCHARD
THE BEE BOX
A Risk Averse and Profitable Pollination Portfolio Best Management Practices for Our Bees and Trees During Bloom Like the majority of the Blue Diamond Growers membership, our family has been growing almonds for generations. Much like your family, I am sure, we take a deep breath every year before talking to our beekeeper. Why ? Because it is a huge financial investment. Indeed, the Almond Board of California has recently shown that the cost of pollination services can constitute anywhere from 15%–20% of the overall cultural costs budget for almond production.¹ We pay for pollination services, have standards for frame counts, and know that this investment will pay dividends. But just like any investment, it must be managed well to be financially sound. In this article, I liken our pollination investment to either a sound investment portfolio, or, one that hoists risk after risk with actions that can and do jeopardize it.
Left: Honey bee colonies on the road to California. Each semi-truck carries around 400 colonies, often through harsh winter weather. Right: Unloading bees into the orchard. Photo Credits: S. Yaddaw for Project Apis m.
Keep in mind that beekeepers are making a major investment, too, by bringing bees from around the country to the almonds. Almond pollination for a beekeeper can set the stage financially for the rest of the year. It can also make or break the colonies from a bee health and productivity perspective. For example, if a beekeeper arrives pre-bloom and there is no natural forage present on the landscape, they have to purchase feed at high cost. This is an attempt to “kickstart” the colonies to begin building brood.² Keep in mind that after winter conditions, bees haven’t seen forage of any type, even a single flower, for months. Then we are asking them to run a marathon. Talk to any beekeeper and they will tell you, natural forage in and around the orchard is far more beneficial to start this brood building process than any supplement they can give in a hive.
1 H. Lee, A. Champetier, et. al. Bee-conomics Revisited: A Decade of New Data Is Consistent with the Market Hypothesis.In Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California Vol. 20, No. 5 May/June 2017, pg.3. See also, recent cost studies here: https://coststudies.ucdavis.edu/en/current/commodity/almonds/. 2 Ever wonder why pollination service costs continues to rise ? There are many legitimate reasons. One of these is the addition of more and more supplemental feed. With more loss of natural forage on California’s landscape, beekeepers had to keep adding.
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ALMOND FACTS
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