{"id":17913,"date":"2019-01-18T18:13:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T18:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vita-europe.com\/beehealth\/?p=17913"},"modified":"2019-01-18T19:17:27","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T19:17:27","slug":"preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vita-europe.com\/beehealth\/blog\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing healthy bees for world\u2019s biggest managed pollination"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The world\u2019s largest managed pollination event is beginning. Demand for bees to pollinate California\u2019s almond orchards is high and shows no signs of lessening. The area of almond orchards is growing but the availability of bees is declining because of bee disease.<\/p>\n

Almonds are big business and the statistics are impressive. California produces about 80% of the world\u2019s commercial almond crop. The 2018 harvest was forecast to be 2.3 billion pounds (more than 1 billion kgs) in weight and it grows year on year. Pollination costs are $400 per acre ($162 per hectare), although the beekeeper is likely to receive up to $200 per colony.<\/p>\n

Bees are trucked in from many states to start their annual pollination tour of the country and the economic incentive to have bees ready for this early spring pollination is very high.<\/p>\n

A curious way of overwintering bees is developing in California taking ideas from Idaho where bees have been stored over winter in cool, but not freezing, potato sheds.<\/p>\n

Idaho produces lots of potatoes and much was stored in large excavated caverns below ground until sold.\u00a0 Since the Idaho winter temperatures can plummet to 20 F,\u00a0anywhere a constant temperature in the low 40s F can be maintained is valuable.\u00a0In the winter beekeepers stored their colonies in unused below ground space.\u00a0Today,\u00a0 huge insulated storage buildings above ground that are temperature- and humidity- controlled have been built<\/p>\n

At temperatures in the low 40s F, bees will not attempt to fly, therefore conserve energy and food stores, are less stressed and will have a better chance of emerging healthy and ready for spring pollination<\/p>\n

In Bakersfield, California, near the almond orchards, they are learning from Idaho with new-style potato-shed overwintering, but beekeepers there are trying to cope with quite a different climate. Central Valley winter temperatures can fluctuate considerably (but mostly above freezing), so potato-shed style overwintering can lessen unproductive activity in winter warmth and help prepare the bees for the almond orchard pollination in February. There can be as many as 40,000 colonies stored in a temperature-controlled shed. Rental is about $20 per colony.<\/p>\n

One bee farmer is renting out 15,000 colonies this year. It\u2019s big business and healthy bees are key.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Innovative ways of overwintering bees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":17919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPreparing healthy bees for world\u2019s biggest managed pollination - Vita Bee Health<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vita-europe.com\/beehealth\/blog\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preparing healthy bees for world\u2019s biggest managed pollination - Vita Bee Health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Innovative ways of overwintering bees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vita-europe.com\/beehealth\/blog\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vita Bee Health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VitaBeeHealth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-18T18:13:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-18T19:17:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vita-europe.com\/beehealth\/wp-content\/uploads\/almond-grove-rainbow.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3227\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2167\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephen Fleming\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@VitaBeeHealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@VitaBeeHealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stephen Fleming\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vita-europe.com\\\/beehealth\\\/blog\\\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vita-europe.com\\\/beehealth\\\/blog\\\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Stephen Fleming\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vita-europe.com\\\/beehealth\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12889812ffabfaa4dc5f8e459f5f289f\"},\"headline\":\"Preparing healthy bees for world\u2019s biggest managed pollination\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-18T18:13:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-18T19:17:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vita-europe.com\\\/beehealth\\\/blog\\\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":371,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vita-europe.com\\\/beehealth\\\/blog\\\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vita-europe.com\\\/beehealth\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/almond-grove-rainbow.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vita-europe.com\\\/beehealth\\\/blog\\\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vita-europe.com\\\/beehealth\\\/blog\\\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vita-europe.com\\\/beehealth\\\/blog\\\/preparing-for-worlds-biggest-managed-pollination\\\/\",\"name\":\"Preparing healthy bees for world\u2019s biggest managed pollination - 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