Hi All,

Since over two-thirds of the nation's hives are currently sitting in
California for almond pollination, I thought that the List might like an
update.  We've been suffering through a crippling drought.  Some growers
had to cancel their pollination contracts, since they couldn't get water to
irrigate their orchards.

I moved hives into some orchards where there was bare dirt rather than the
usual ground cover of flowering weeds.  Almond bloom looked to be coming on
early, then the trees came to a screeching halt, leaving hives sitting in
the orchards starving for anything to eat.  Better beekeepers have been
giving supplemental feed to their hives in the orchards.  At one of my
orchards, the bees hit molasses at an adjacent cattle feedlot.

There appears to be plenty of bees in Calif.  Our industry seems to have
been able to recover its numbers after last year's serious shortage.  Looks
like the Extinction of the Honey Bee has been put on temporary hold for a
while.

As it stands today, some early cultivars are partially in bloom in warmer
areas, but the main cultivar, Nonpariel, is still at pink bud to popcorn
stage.  Bloom will likely begin in earnest the middle of next week in
Northern Calif., when the weather should warm a bit.

No telling how long the bloom will last.  Bloom of hardshell varieties may
be delayed, which would mean that package producers (some of whom have been
sold out since October) may need to delay package deliveries.

The good news is that it is finally raining!

Most all of Calif's rainfall occurs between Nov and the end of March.  This
winter it simply didn't happen.  Some areas saw no rain for nearly two
months.  This week we were blessed with a one-two punch of a cold storm
followed by a pineapple express.  I lifted the following from
wunderground.com.  Note the sentence that I've placed between asterisks.

Pineapple Express Bringing Significant Rains to Drought-Stricken California

 By Dr. Jeff Masters
Published: 10:10 PM GMT on February 06, 2014
A very moist "Pineapple Express" flow of air from the Hawaiian Islands will
impact California through Sunday, likely bringing enough precipitation to
make a noticeable dent in the state's dire drought conditions (though the
exceptionally dry and hard soils caused by California's driest year in its
history are forcing the heavy rains to run off faster than usual, reducing
the amount of moisture that can soak into the soil.) *Some locations may
see more rain in a four-day period than they have had during the previous
eight months.* NOAA's Weather Prediction Center is calling for most of
Northern California to receive more than 2" of precipitation through
Sunday, with many higher elevation areas expected to get 4 - 6". Up to
three feet of snow is predicted to fall in the Sierra Mountains, though it
appears much of the precipitation will fall as rain, reducing the benefit
of the moisture during the coming summer months (when Sierra snow melt
provides an important source of water.)

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

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