Almond growers find bees plentiful in otherwise tough year
| Friday, Mar 20 2009 09:41 PM
Last Updated Monday, Mar 30 2009 04:25 PM
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Bees swarm around their hives in this field south of Shafter.
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To call it a honeybee glut might be an exaggeration, but this year the ever-shifting balance between Kern’s almond groves and the bees that pollinate them does seem to have tilted in favor of the trees.
That may raise a few eyebrows, given what appeared to be an industrywide crisis last year as bees died by the tens of thousands, victims of a mysterious affliction called colony collapse disorder.
As this year’s pollination season draws to a close, it has become clear that growers now hold sway — and not simply because many beekeepers were able to field large numbers of colonies.
Kern almond growers, it turns out, have had such a miserable year, mostly because of lower almond prices and a severe water shortage, that they did not need to hire as many bees as they would in a normal season.
So although hive prices hovered near historical highs this year, people in the industry say growers could afford to hold out for strong bee colonies that allow them to employ fewer bees per acre, thereby mitigating the higher prices per hive.
To their credit, many growers this year took a more active role in the pollination process, often donning protective suits to inspect hives and make sure they had a high number of bees inside.
“Almond growers are getting smarter and smarter all the time,” said beekeeper Orin Johnson, past president of the California State Beekeepers Association.
The inspections allowed growers to negotiate prices from a more informed position, said Bakersfield beekeeper Joe Romance, owner of United Honeybees Inc.
“It’s definitely switched over into the almond guys’ favor,” Romance said. He added that he had to lower his prices slightly from what he was initially charging early in the season despite having strong colonies.
Last year the bee industry garnered national attention because of fears that colony collapse disorder would decimate hives and growers would be unable to find bees to pollinate their trees at a reasonable price.
There still is no consensus on the disease’s root causes, be they mites, viruses, new pesticides, malnutrition or a combination of all four. But honeybee experts say beekeepers have been able to prevent massive losses by investing in diet supplements and medicine.
The high cost of these treatments is what drove bee prices higher this year, said Joe Traynor, owner of Scientific Ag, a Bakersfield pollination service. He said the price of renting a strong colony ranged between $160 to $190 this year, up from around $150 last year.
“You can find some as low as $125,” he said, “but they’re not the strength you’d want.”
For its part, Kern’s Paramount Farming found sufficient numbers of strong bees this season — and at the same price the company paid last year, pest control adviser Doug Blair reported.
“I think there’s a potential for a pretty good crop,” he said.
“The bees were very good quality.”
If nothing else, the bee situation is one less worry for almond growers, many of whom still face prices that will only just cover their production costs this year.
Some growers now are looking to beekeepers to keep prices down next year in recognition of the difficult economics in almond growing.
“I think they’re willing now to share in the drop” in almond prices, said Bakersfield-area almond grower Richard Enns.
