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Troubling Honey Bee Shortage in California

22K views 58 replies 28 participants last post by  JRG13 
#1 ·
Not sure if this has been posted yet....

DAVIS--California almond growers may not have enough honey bees to pollinate this year’s crop of 800,000 acres, says Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. He attributes the difficulty to winter losses and less populous hives.

“We need 1.6 million colonies, or two colonies per acre, and California has only about 500,000 colonies that can be used for that purpose,” he said. “We need to bring in a million more colonies but due to the winter losses, we may not have enough bees.”

Those winter losses-- still being tabulated-- and the resulting fewer bees per hive could spell trouble for almond growers, he said.

“Last year was not a good year for honey production in the United States,” Mussen said, “and it could be one of the worst honey production years in the history of nation, although it’s been pretty rough in some of the previous years. Usually when we’re short of nectar, we’re short on pollen, and honey bees need both. So, 2012 was a bad year for bee nutrition.”

Malnutrition is one of the stressors of colony collapse disorder, the mysterious malady first noticed in the winter of 2006 that has decimated one-third of the nation’s bees every year. Some beekeepers have reported winter losses of 90 to 100 percent.

In CCD, the adult bees abandon the hive, leaving behind the queen bee, brood and food stores. Bee scientists think CCD is caused by a multitude of factors, includes, pests, pesticides, parasites, diseases, malnutrition and stress.

“We don’t know how many more bees will be lost over the winter,” Mussen said. “We consider the winter ending when the weather warms up and the pollen is being brought into the hives.”

“Many, many colonies are not going to make it through the winter,” said Mussen, an apiculturist in the UC Davis Department of Entomology since 1976. “We won’t have as large a bee population as in the past.”

In other words, fewer colonies will be available for the almond growers and the colonies that are available aren’t going to be as populous, he said.” Almond growers usually want at least eight frames of bees per hive,” Mussen said, “but this year they may be lucky to get six. That’s one-third less bees per hive to pollinate the orchards.”

Mussen estimated a good solid hive with eight frames amounts to 2000 bees per frame or 16,000 bees.

Already brokers are getting calls from beekeepers saying “I can’t fulfill the contract. I’m going to be short.”

Mussen said it may all work out well in the end as “bees pollinate almonds on a community basis. The strong colonies will make up for the weak colonies. The strong colonies will clean the orchard of pollen by early afternoon and then go down the street and grab food from nearby orchards.”

San Joaquin almond orchards are already starting to bloom, “but it’s going to be late up here in the Sacramento Valley,” he said. Kern County grows more almonds than any other county in the state.

Many beekeeping operations truck in thousands of colonies to pollinate California’s almonds. One beekeeping operation used to bring 16,000 colonies, Mussen said, “but that 16,000 could be half that this year.” The bees are trucked here from all over the nation.

Almonds are California's biggest export. This year the National Agricultural Statistics Service is forecasting a record-breaking 2.10 billion meat pounds, valued at approximately $3 billion. Eighty-percent of the global supply of almonds is grown in California, and about 70 percent of California’s crop is marketed overseas.
 
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#5 ·
Usually when we’re short of nectar, we’re short on pollen, and honey bees need both. So, 2012 was a bad year for bee nutrition.”
Malnutrition is one of the stressors of colony collapse disorder, the mysterious malady first noticed in the winter of 2006 that has decimated one-third of the nation’s bees every year. Some beekeepers have reported winter losses of 90 to 100 percent. .
Just thought this might need a second read. Good luck to all this spring.
 
#6 ·
This wouldn't be a subtle ad for sub would it Keith? Not even sure why you would need one besides a candid shot of one of your or my hives with the lids off.

Let it be known to all. We have dead bees but the ones that survived are currently in pretty good shape. :D Thanks in part to about 10 pounds of sub per hive from the guy with the blue boxes as well as up to 12 gallons of syrup per hive from April on. The poor ladies who would have been all dead or in PPS otherwise. Currently are on a roll. :cool:
 
#7 ·
Hmmm, for the folks that don't know that's 120 pounds of syrup, or the equivalent of a reasonnable honey flow. That's a bit more than we would feed. 10 pounds of sub, seems a like a lot, but we feed even moreof it. Either way if we did not feed heavily we too would have poor or dead hives.

Jean-Marc
 
#13 ·
A grower I know that has a long standing relationship with his bee guy paid $165 this year, from what I've been reading around the web, there is a pretty good shortage of hives and the prices are climbing over $200 a hive, would have been a good year to have some extra hives in reserve for the big guys, heck even if I had a handful of strong hives I could have made enough to buy more wooden ware!
 
#15 ·
If the growers start cracking boxes I hope they are happy with what they see inside. Driving around today seemed to be some pretty sorry flight going on in and out of some "boxes" considering it was as hot as it was. Lot of smaller places still don't have anything in them yet? Buds busting on the end of our driveway. With almost 70 tomorrow the flowers ought to be on a roll by the time the rain shows up early next week.
 
#16 ·
I got a call the other night hearing about 4 framers getting $160.00. It almost made me drive down south and load my bees on a semi bound for CA. Geeze my crappiest bees are most likely 4 frames.

Actually I thought it was a bit out there offering $160.00 for 4 framers. Well until I read this thread today. Oh well there always next year!
 
#18 ·
well after last year and one load sitting in a orchard that hD 3 blooms per acre and beez going downhill with nothing to work my bees are in orange groves in sunny florida. if almond growers want bees they need to rease when there is no viable bloom. ive got the best bees ive ever had...what didnt kick the bucketm. most all are 14 to 16 frames or more... just staying on east coast.
 
#29 ·
If the price of Almonds stay where they are currently at the growers "should" be able to afford about $400-$420 per acre for pollination to give the bee guys the 7% + or - of the gross we have been averaging the last long while. $210 a hive is not proportionately out of the statistical norms.
 
#26 ·
Interesting quote from Randy O.

"In general, most beekeepers' bees look poorer than normal. Lots of junk
being delivered to the orchards. Some unscrupulous beekeepers splitting
hives into worthless queenless splits simply to make count for boxes with
bees flying out of the entrance.

Scuttlebutt is that bee supply will be short, with some growers getting
nasty surprises this week. This will cause hard feelings, since nut prices
are set to rise substantially, and growers want to set a better crop than
last season"
 
#27 ·
I'm not an almond grower or pollinator, but my guess would be that even with higher prices of hives there is still more money in trees in the ground than tearing them out to put year round bee forage. As long as there is a high demand for almonds, there will be more trees in the ground and more bees needed. I'm curious to see what happens next spring, will the shortage of bees turn into a surplus driving down the current prices?

I'd like to hear the thoughts of the commercial guys.
 
#28 ·
Seems to me (and I am an outsider looking in) listening to many of the beekeepers here on this forum, they are getting comfortably paid around the $165 per hive mark. I am also gathering these beekeepers are supplying hives in top notch shape. But Im also hearing alot of talk of $200 per hive plus from the speculative gossip.

Put the two together and yes, the fringes will be operating in that boom bust business environment, while the rest sit comfortable all the way through
 
#32 ·
Supply and demand is right. Next year the situation could reverse itself and an oversupply could result in strong hives sitting. But if the droughts continue and varroa keeps devastating hives, next year could repeat this one. Lots of variables. Take your best guess and plan accordingly.
 
#33 ·
Take your best guess and plan accordingly.
LOL... outstanding post there, Mike. What we really have is a supply side issue. The demand (almonds) is set, we know how much wood is in the ground & going in the ground & we have four years before they need bees, so it's not like it's an unknow. What's the big unknow is the keepers ability to keep hives alive. Now I would rather go to Reno than bet on what the keeper is going to do.:)
 
#34 ·
Got a question here, do the small farmers with say 10 acres or so of almonds go in a co-op with other nearby small growers and hire a large beekeeper, or do you think they find their own bees? I would like to do small pollination jobs next year and I am wondering if it would be best to go through a broker or find another venue to find a small grower and grow a yearly relationship with them, and maybe if I go to sideliner status they would put word of mouth out?
 
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