The almond bloom is well underway here in northern California. Some orchards are in full bloom, and the later varieties are just starting to open. Last week and the next two weeks will be the most decisive for determining the almond set and how the bees develop. Fortunately the forecast for next week is favorable….daytime […]
We are winding up our survey of the Ebert bees out in northern California. The image above shows Alex in a set of 150 hives that graded out well and survived well. We sent two other semi loads this year. Overall it looks like we have enough good ones to keep the wheels turning, especially […]
It is only our third year of loading bee trucks. Somehow it feels much longer. Participating in almond pollination affects our whole calendar and beekeeping system. When they live, the bees come back extremely strong and it’s great for spring splitting and early honey collection potential when they return to Iowa. The main fear is […]
One of the virus-related disruptions of 2020 is that I no longer sit at a coffee shop on Sunday mornings and write a blog every week or two. Apologies for the lengthy delay in writing an update since the California venture early in the year! The bees did quite well in the exceptionally warm and […]
Almond bloom is exploding into a beautiful scene for bees and beekeepers. When we pulled into this orchard several days ago, there were no open blooms. As the image above shows, large portions of this orchard are now fully open and enticing millions of bees to visit. Forager after forager is coming home loaded with […]
Almond pollination is officially underway in the orchards where our bees are located. In the image above, I count six pollen carriers, though one of them is disappearing into the entrance rather than standing around with the others. The orchard with the load from Pella is in substantial bloom, especially in the younger half of […]
A few days ago we started our California bee rounds among the almond trees. We are in two different orchards instead of one this year. The Pella load of bees all went to a ranch where we found them staged on the ends of the rows. We got through that entire group in less than […]
The American Honey Producers Association is holding its annual convention in Sacramento. Founder Phil started coming to this conference roughly fifteen years ago; we think it was 2004. In more recent years, Alex and I joined the annual bee people party. This year’s conference was the first time that all three of us have been […]
Yesterday we sent out the last truckload of hives for this year. They embarked on their trip to California several days later than anticipated due to more excitement with the weather and a small mechanical issue on the truck we hired. Hopefully those challenges don’t resurface on the way out to northern Cal. We were […]
Andrew came out to weave in and out among the hives while we got them stacked for the last truck. I spotted him driving around on the John Deere power wheel tractor tossing something into the hayfield. It was a bag of old English walnuts that he was “planting” for next year! It will take […]