Yeah, I'm curious about this.  There are a number of factors and costs
involved.

Growers want a reliable source of pollination service, and our industry's
regular problems with supplying adequate hives as promised really hurts
us.
On the other hand, I'm trying to wrap my head around how the machines would
work.  In an orchard, there are typically three cultivars grown, in
alternating rows.  Nonpareil is the most valuable, then an early-blooming,
and a late-blooming pollinizer on either side.  The plan is that bloom of
each of the pollinizers will overlap that of Nonpareil, thus ensuring
nutset of both Nonpareil and the pollinizers.  In some years, all three
flower simultaneously.  In other years, there is barely any overlap between
the blooms.

So the mechanical system would need to harvest and process pollen from
cross-compatible cultivars
http://www.burchellnursery.com/pdf/BNI_Almond_Compatiblity.pdf in advance,
freezing later-blooming ones to pollinate the early cultivars the next year.

Then since the flowers on any cultivar open and are then receptive over a
relatively-brief time period, how many passes on different days would the
machine need to make for each cultivar?  That means that the machines could
likely not be rented, but would need to be in nearly continual use in every
orchard, and then set idle for the rest of the year.

Them there are weather and temperature issues, since rain will wash pollen
off the pistils, and the pistil is nonreceptive at low temps.  Bees
pollinate only during times favorable for pollination, and can effect
pollination with as little as an hour of good flight weather per day.

So the question will be cost to the grower, which would need to cover the
cost each year of purchasing frozen(?) pollen, perhaps well in advance, as
well as the cost and maintenance of the machines (and hoping for no
breakdowns during critical bloom/weather windows).  This would be compared
by the grower to the cost and reliability of renting bees.

I have no idea as to how this will work out.  Some brokers, such as Joe
Traynor, present convincing evidence that growers don't necessarily need
two strong colonies per acre.  I've long suggested that growers stock at
number of frames of bees per acre instead, thus reducing costs.

The best thing for our industry to do would be to stop telling the growers
that we are in crisis and nonsustainable.  We need to provide a reliable
supply of strong colonies that the growers can count on.  And at a cost
comparable or less than that of mechanical pollination.  Hold onto your
seats as we see how this all works out!

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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