LOST HILLS, Calif. — Almond trees are exploding with pink and white blossoms across the vast Central Valley, marking the start of the growing season for California’s most valuable farm export.
Toiling among the blooms are the migrant workers that will make or break this year’s crop: honeybees.
The insects carry the pollen and genetic material needed to turn flowers into nuts as they flit from tree to tree. It’s a natural process that no machine can replicate. But it can’t be left to chance. Bees are too integral to the fortunes of California’s nearly $3 billion-a-year almond industry.
So each year beginning in early February, hundreds of beekeepers from around the country converge on California’s almond farms with their hives in tow. Lasting about four weeks, it’s the largest such pollination effort on Earth: 1.6 million hives buzzing with 48 billion bees across a cultivation area about the size of Rhode Island.
“Without the honeybees … the (almond) industry doesn’t exist,” said Neal Williams, an entomologist and pollination ecologist at the University of California-Davis. “We need those bees. We need them to be reliable, and we need them at the right time.”
But a mysterious malady known as colony-collapse disorder has wreaked havoc on the U.S. bee population in recent years, stoking fears among almond producers and other farmers who depend on the insects for their livelihoods.
Between 2003 and 2009, the number of bee colonies in California plunged 26 percent to 355,000, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Eric Mussen, another UC-Davis bee expert, said no agency has a precise count.
Although California bee populations have recovered a bit, almond farms still feel the sting. Prices to rent bees have tripled since 2003-04 to as much as $160 a hive because of tight supplies and rising expenses for beekeepers to keep colonies healthy. California growers will spend about $250 million on bees this year.
