SP>From: Sid Pullinger <[log in to unmask]>
  >Date:         Mon, 17 Jun 1996 06:29:33 +0100
  >Subject:      Almonds
 
SP>My thanks to Andy Nachbaur for his very long reply and to Frank Humphrey for
  >his very short one.  As regards the latter, we also have 640 acres to the
  >square mile so it would appear that our measurements coincide.  Now why
  >should measurements fool me?  600,000 acres divided by 640 gives my figure
  >of 625 square miles and that, I repeat, represents a lot of almonds.  If
  >they require 800,000 hives for pollination that bill alone must run into
  >many million dollars.  A huge industry.  Surely they do not all go into
  >cakes and candy bars.
 
Hi Sid,
 
The highest price is paid for the smallest almonds, because they can be
used in candy bars whole. Hershey Chocolate Company uses so many
almonds in their candy that they actually built a factory in the heart
of the almonds because the savings in freight alone would pay for the
multi million dollar factory over the years.
 
In 1996 it is estimated that the beekeepers who supplied the bees for
almond pollination received an average of $32.00 dollars for each hive
provided for the almond bloom, that would add up to more then $25
million dollars cash flow to the beekeepers, which they spent for sugar,
fuel, and in replacing bees for next years bloom. Only a few beekeepers
could support themselves off the almond bloom alone, and sadly most
others need the cash flow from the almonds to start the season in hopes
of that big honey crop later on.
 
About half the almonds produced are processed by one grower CO-OP called
the Almond Growers Exchange. They at one time in the early days handled
honey for beekeepers but failed in that effort and lost a lot of money
for the beekeepers. A few years ago they also had to be stopped from
selling one product they called "Almond Honnies" that listed artificial
honey (sugar) in the ingredient statement, but contained NO (O%) honey,
they do use a few drums of honey annually in a almond candy they
manufacture for the Christmas trade and for their own retail stores. In
total little honey is used in almond products in favor of cheep sugar
and corn products. This is one area that the beekeepers could
significantly increase the consumption of honey if the right pressure
was applied like in the deal you can't turn down. "USE MY HONEY, or get
NO BEES!"
 
The almonds are shook from the trees when dry in the fall or late
summer. They then are picked up and taken to a almond hulling plant
that removes the dry outer hull (not shell). The hull is used for cattle
feed if not too contaminated with farm chemicals. The nuts then can be
dried if needed, and sent on for further processing which includes the
removing of the wood shell. They shell is also used for fuel and
products that are burned like BBQ briquets. The almonds are then graded
and start the long manufacturing process which is mostly grading,
sorting, and then slicing, dicing, blanching, grinding, packaging, and
for a few hard shell almonds, bleaching the shells for those nice white
shelled holiday almonds sold in the shell.
 
The grower is paid for the weight of the meat of the nuts, size,
quality, and how much damage has been done to the nut in handling to
get it to the stage that it can be graded. Damage can include everything
from the natural splitting of the nuts to insect damage. Nuts are also
sold according to the verities, the ones that produce the smaller nuts
are worth more. In total it is a billion dollar industry with the
potential to return a billion dollars to the growers which it has yet to
do, but $700,000,000. is nothing to turn up one's noise at and will buy
a lot of farm chemicals and fuel oil.
 
As for the value of the almond bloom to the bees themselves. Because it
is one of the early blooming plants in California, and for many
beekeepers today the only early spring pasture they know, it is of
course considered a good early spring build up food for bees. The truth
is that until the almond growers started paying beekeepers to move into
the almonds most beekeepers who lived adjacent to them would not go out
of their way to place bees near any almond orchard. They had learned
from experience that the almond bloom was pretty but not the ideal
pasture for honeybees. Early day beekeepers who lived in the almond
orchards would say its value was in the fact they they could do
their first bee inspection during the almond bloom and little else.
Bees will find a better build up in California from boarder to boarder a
month earlier or a month later from many different spring wild flowers
and are not bound to the almond trees for spring build up.
 
In fact in the later years it was determined that almond pollen or
nectar actually contains a natural sugar that will retard brood
development because it is actually toxic to bees. This is the principal
reason almond pollen piles up in the brood chamber during the almond
bloom, (a sure sign to beekeepers it is a good pollen source, but
actually it is not, and only because it is the only source is it
considered good at all.) Almond pollen and or nectar does have a
unknown attractor in the pollen/nectar that does attract the bees away
for other flowers for a few hours each day, the short time it takes the
bees to collect all the pollen and nectar only to return to other wild
flowers if available. Sadly the farmers have taken to seeing bees on
other flowers as a sign they are not working their almonds and for years
have spent much time in preventing other flowers blooming during the
almond bloom with chemicals and tractors.
 
Much attention also has been paid to the dispersal of bees in the
almonds, mostly because of grower concerns that they are providing bees
for their neighbour. Several times research has been carried out to
determine how the bees should be placed in the almonds. The placement in
small groups as practiced today does not increase the almond yields at
all and only makes more work for the beekeeper. Some beekeepers have
found that to charge more for smaller groups of bees cures this problem
but few growers allow truck loads in one spot which is all that is has
been needed from day one as the bees disperse like water poured from a
jug on a table top. The more water pored the farther the dispersal. No
orchard has ever been found in California that bees could not be found
during the bloom, yet many orchards do not have bees in them. No factual
information other then individual trees caged to keep bees out can be
cited to show bees or bees in certain numbers are needed for almond
pollination and this type of information has some problems due to the
influence of the cage on a tree that normally grows without that benefit.
 
Almonds are cross pollinated between different parent trees grown in
alternating rows. The bees must move the heavy pollen from the male
parts of one verity to the female parts of another. Almond pollen is
very heavy and is not dispersed by the wind. The flowers shed pollen in
the late afternoon and are attractive to bees then and in the mornings.
The bee collected pollen is very strange, and brakes down even when
frozen. It will ferment very fast, and is bitter to the taste. The
total amount that can be trapped from an acre of almonds is not that
great even with the large numbers of blooms and trees per acre.
They honey is also bitter and seldom gathered in surplus so as to
be extracted by beekeepers. The best almond location are those that are
adjacent to other flowers, other fruit crops, and along rivers lined
with wild trees or in areas that have natural ground covers of mustard
or other flowers. In good years the bees will swarm in the almonds
without beekeeper care. NOT a problem the last few years in California.
 
                        ttul, the OLd Drone
 
 
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