From the Fields - Jeremy Jensen

By Jeremy Jensen, Los Angeles County beekeeper

We are going through and grading all our beehives and getting ready for almond pollination. We have to go through and judge the size and quality of each colony so we can send the best quality colonies to the almond orchards. We’re starting to supplementally feed the bees to stimulate them. The bees can tell the days are getting longer, and they start growing.

I’m excited about some new technology. There are sensors that can be put inside the beehives that try to remotely predict hive strength. Some companies are even saying to the grower, “You can have a sensor in every beehive and know exactly how large the hives are before they even get to your orchard.” There are definitely a lot of skeptics. I’m interested to see what will pan out in a few years.

Last year’s almond pollination season was horrendous. We had a long winter, so we got a late start and got out of the almonds later than usual. All of our pollination events, including almonds and avocados, took longer than anticipated because bloom was delayed.

Because of the rain last year, the bees had a balanced diet and were healthier. We haven’t seen something like that in a decade. We had a great honey season. We harvested barrels of honey, and it was pedal to the metal the whole way through.

The almond sector has been having all kinds of issues, and this trickles down to beekeepers. We’ll see what happens this year because a lot of almond acres are going out of production. I’m not worried about performing pollination, but I am curious as to what the long-term outlook is for the almond industry in California. Pricing will be tricky this year because if the pollination rental price drops to $175 per hive, it may not be worth it for out-of-state beekeepers to truck bees across the country. We’re going to see how it all shakes out.