Getting Ready for Almond Bloom

As winter nears a close in our area and spring being right around the corner, we have been getting our bee hives ready to be moved into almond orchards for bloom.

Nearly 2 million bees hives from all over the country are being moved into California to help pollinate over 660,000 acres of almond orchards in California between February and March. It is the biggest migration of bee hives all year long. Growers pay bee keepers to bring between 1-2 hives per acre into their orchards. We plan to move our bee hives to almond orchards in Clovis and in Selma within the next couple weeks.

Photo: Almond trees are already starting to bud. Bloom usually starts around Valentine's Day each year.

Locally, this fall and winter has seen lots of rain mixed with sunshine and mild temperatures overall, which has resulted in lots of wildflowers in the Clovis area for our bees. This has been a huge blessing, allowing our bees to start early foraging that helps build up the hives in number and strength without adding artificial pollen or nectar supplements. All natural diet this year!

Typically, we add “pollen Patties” (pollen substitute) and syrup, which is 2 parts water one part sugar (nectar substitute) to stimulate our hives in January right before almond bloom starts in early/mid February. However, with all the wildflower we’ve had this winter and the higher temperatures forecasted the next couple weeks, the Lord has provided for these needs this year for our hives! This saves us some time and money, and as you’d guess a natural diet is more healthy for the bees. Thank you Jesus!

Photo: You can see the yellow pollen in this frame that our bees have been collecting from nearby Mustard Wildflowers - an excellent source of food for the bees.

(The only challenge that early wildflowers creates, however, is the hives building up too fast too early which can create potential problems with swarming and mites in the coming months, both of which have solutions but require staying on top of things with good hive management practices early in the year… more to come on that.)

Stay tuned for upcoming posts showing the hives being moved into local almond orchards.