>Our County in the Sierra Foothills was facing being inundated with large
(200+) drops of hives during the summer, when there was no forage near the
almond orchards in the Central Valley below us.

I envy the efforts that were made in Nevada Co. CA but it strikes me as uncommon strange that almond bees are not welcome. It appears to me to be a classic case of "not in my backyard" when the front yard is full of 2+ million colonys during the almond bloom. Those bees clearly overburden the carrying capacity of all suitable forage locations in most of the western states. I estimate that my home county, Columbia, in south east WA gets 6 to 8 thousand almond refugees each summer. Almost all come from non resident operations and are dropped 1 to 2 hundred per location and fed most of the summer. Before the almond explosion we were a pretty good honey producing area. Now I am one of a tiny few that can keep highly productive yards in out of the way nooks and crannies. We are a small county, 4,000 souls and an agricultural economy and hardly any backyard beekeepers. I here the same from places like the Dakota's, Idaho, and Oregon. Even the big boys are singing the blues about encroachment into there traditional territories. 

What is a solution that works for all? 

Paul

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