Half of the managed honey bee hives in the United
States are in California in February for almond pollination. California
maintains a large beekeeping business, and it receives many truckloads of bee
hives from across the country. This huge movement of hundreds of thousands of
hives full of live honey bees is one of modern agriculture’s greatest
accomplishments. California leads the world in the production of almonds, nuts
prized for their taste and as a healthy food. However, almond trees require
pollination by bees. It is bluntly stated that an almond tree without honey bees
is merely a shade tree. The pollination of almonds and numerous other crops is
accomplished by migratory beekeepers who move their bee hives around the
country by truck. Honey bees are ideally suited for migratory pollination
service due to their behavior. Honey bees, living in large colonies, can be safely
trucked in durable wooden Langstroth hives. The honey bee exhibits a foraging
behavior known as “flower constancy” in which individual bees forage from the
same plant species as long as the plant is secreting nectar or producing
pollen. Charles Darwin described this behavior which makes the honey bee an
efficient crop pollinator since only pollen from the same species of plant is
transferred among flowers. Migratory beekeeping provides the pollination
necessary for over ninety food crops, amounting to one third of our human diet.
Moving hives is stressful on the bees, leaving
colonies vulnerable to both new and existing honey bee diseases. Some migratory
beekeepers experienced great numbers of colony losses. They were the first to
detect Colony Collapse Disorder. Some of these beekeepers are also on the
forefront of efforts to manage healthy honey bee colonies by culling old
honeycombs, limiting chemical uses, and seeking genetically resistant honey bee
stock. While moving bee hives around the country spreads pests and pathogens,
the movement distributes honey bee genes, a benefit to beekeeping. In today’s
picture, Squeaker, our 25-year-old parrot, enjoys her favorite treat, an almond.
--Richard