Subject: [BEE-L] Independence from bees?

I believe the above with a question mark by Peter sums the situation up.

I looked into self fertile almond trees around 7 years ago and was going to
do an article but what I discovered when speaking with the head of the
Burchell Nursery was not very encouraging .
http://burchellnursery.com

The trees were certainly self fertile as I was shown trees which produced
almonds in plastic bags.
It will take many years before the 300,000 acres of almond trees needing
bees could be replaced.
Compare the acres today of Independence almond and the years to full
production.

However:

Things have changed a bit over the last seven years and almond growers
reading *might* consider the new self fertile varieties.

Chemical companies are trying hard to get systemics into the almond groves.
*If* they do and bees start seeing problems (as documented in Florida in
Orange groves)  many out of state beekeepers will simply pass on bringing
hives. Which could cause a severe bee shortage.

Oranges do not need bees for pollination so orange growers have chosen
imidacloprid over bees in groves. Some growers even blame beekeepers for
spreading greening (which is not sound science).

However almond growers need bees. The choice between bees and systemics
needs considered carefully.

The makers of Imidacloprid say its safe to use in orange groves with bees
when *stopped* a short period before bloom and large Florida beekeepers say
not true.

Research is inconclusive either way. Regardless my fellow beekeepers in
Florida for the most part are not placing bees in orange groves.

Orange grove owners are not losing sleep over the decision.

Important to consider:
real danger to bees or not there are commercial beekeepers which will pass
on almonds if the growers go to using imidacloprid year around like in
Florida.

Greening has been found in orange groves in Texas and the cost per acre is
around $100 for systemics.

Not sure what the exact cost to treat a acre of almond trees with
imidacloprid but using the figure used for an acre of orange trees.( from
the Texas orange report posted)
One can easily see if almond growers went to systemics using 300000 almond
acres  as a figure the total cost to growers would be 30 million dollars.

BIG FUTURE MARKET

Perhaps if almond growers went to the systemics bees would not suffer (
devils advocate) but was not the case in Florida orange groves. However if
bees start coming out of almonds half dead and beekeepers can't make splits
then almond pollination will take a hit.

It seems many Texas orange groves are already using systemics for fear of
greening.

I know I could not find a bottle of orange honey when in Florida this year
and my friend in Brownsville, Texas said orange honey is hard to find and
seemed to be more of a mix than pure orange honey.

http://www.thebusinessjournal.com/news/agriculture/770-new-almond-promises-independence-from-bees

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