This appeared in the LA Times

Paramount is the world's biggest almond grower with 47,000 acres under cultivation. This season, Paramount contracted with 26 beekeepers to bring in 92,000 hives from as far as Maine, Louisiana, Florida and the Carolinas. The rental expense represents 15% of the company's total almond production cost.

"We're looking at the best bees we've seen in five years," Paramount staff entomologist Gordon Wardell said.  "The bees are better because the beekeepers are getting better at managing them." Still, beekeepers said these insects, which are so critical to California agriculture, remain something of an enigma.

It's an inexact science "to manipulate the bees to do what they naturally do on our terms," said Henry Harlan, who manages 2,400 hives in Yolo County near Sacramento. "If you meet a beekeeper who says he knows it all, his bees will probably be dead next year."

PLB
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