KevinR: hire a semi to take load to CA, have a broker out there who unloads truck, finds almond contracts, moves them into orchards and loads truck again after almonds are done. My 3 trips out there (November/January/late March or early April) are spent working the hives (feeding syrup/pollen, culling out weak hives/dead outs, making splits in the spring, etc). Broker does not pop a lid, simply moves them.
jmgi: have 16 yards, avg. a little more than 40 per yard (43.75 to be exact I guess); smallest one has 32 hives, largest is 64; most have 40 or 48.