Is there any truth to the RUMOURs I am hearing?

Hi Ian,

I haven't wanted to dispute previous posts that there are plenty of
bees in Calif.  As with last year, there are plenty of boxes in Calif.

Again, as in last year, some of those boxes had bees in them in the
recent past, but no longer do.  The bloom is just beginning--way late,
and the weather has turned foul again.

Many out of staters dropped off bees early, expecting better weather,
and a timely bloom.  Neither happened.  So colonies sat in the cold
and starved.  Not cold enough to form a tight cluster and conserve
stores, so they burned through their food.  Then a few days of warm to
get robbing and burn up even more energy futilely looking for food.
Then the current rain again, which should last through Sunday.

My guess is that colony protein levels are low, unless the colonies
have patties on them.

Monday should begin a sunny turn in the weather, and then we will
really know what the bee situation is.  But I can tell you that cell
phones are ringing as beekeepers try to fill in sudden holes in their
contracts.

I personally went down and put pollen supplement on all my
protein-hungry colonies a few days ago.  Other local beekeepers kept
their bees out of the orchards and on mustard flows until the last
minute--they are moving in today in the rain.

Almond pollination separates the bee-keepers from the box haulers.

Now before anyone accuses me of blaming losses on PPB, there are some
very good beekeepers experiencing losses.  There are also mediocre
beekeepers (such as myself) suffering the same (I believe that mine
reached their nadir about two weeks ago).

There are some incredibly strong colonies in almonds--I'm talking to
those guys to see how they pulled it off.  'Cause next year...

Randy Oliver
In rainy California

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