Checking on the Bees

Checking on the Bees. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Now that it is officially March and we know that spring will eventually get here it is time to start thinking about how this years growing season will shape up. One unknown is whether there will be enough bees to pollinate.

TATE: As far as pollination is concerned we have probably an overage of colonies only because California is having to shut down many, many orchards.

That is Jerry Tate of Tate’s Honey Farm. California is having a major issue with a lack of water and is seeing many orchards being shut down.

TATE: So we ended up with a surplus of bees on the almonds so there was some price cutting going on there but in general we’re still seeing some colony collapses from different groups, especially out of the Midwest but they had more of a drought condition last year than we did.

Here in the northwest Tate says that the bees here seem to be doing a lot better.

TATE: I’ve called around to just about every one of our major beekeepers and nobody has sustained super high loses, let’s put it that way. And I’m saying above 25% or so. We used to get 10% or lower was good but we have now kind of settled in at 20 to 25 is probably standard with mites and everything else that is going on.

More on the condition and availability of bees tomorrow.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.