Antoine Champetier shows that there is not a pollinator crisis. The price of pollination fees is driven by demand, so if bees were in short supply the fees should rise. In fact they have risen astronomically for bees in almonds. However, this is due to vastly increased acreages of almonds planted in California. It is probably exacerbated by the long term drought in California which makes it difficult to maintain large numbers of colonies in state. Meanwhile, pollination fees for other crops have not risen, with the exception of cherries:

> Indeed, the pollination fees for varieties of cherries blooming at the same time as almonds have increased drastically since 2004 whereas the fees for varieties blooming later have not

Cherries and also plums are competing against the high priced almond rentals. Fees for apples averaged less than twenty dollars ten years ago and by 2009 were in the high thirties. During the same span the fee for almonds went from fifty five to over one hundred and fifty five. 

The bottom line is this: almonds are such a valuable commodity that the growers pay almost the asking price of the hive to get them in there for a couple of weeks. Why don't they just buy the hives? Because they are smarter than that, the bees could be dead in a year, especially if they kept them in the valley. Simpler to let the beekeeper worry about keeping them alive elsewhere. 

Why don't prices go through the roof for other crops, like apples in NYS? Because there are enough bees, especially in areas where native bees and local beekeepers are providing services for free.

PLB

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