Hi all

Back in the 1980s, I worked one summer for Bob von Gunden, one of the great California beekeepers. He had a lot of stories to tell, but one that is relevant is about cotton. Bob ran bees in southern California and so depended on rainfall. He was also hauling bees into almonds before most of the folks reading this were born. 

Anyway, after going to the San Joaquin valley to pollinate almonds, they'd move the bees back to the desert to get spring honey. Summer in So Cal is hit or miss, so some guys would move into irrigated alfalfa or cotton. Bob told me he used to haul bees back up to the San Joaquin to try to get some cotton honey.

They did this for years and it was reasonably reliable. Then, the honey crops stopped happening. Several years of dud honey flows went by until Bob found out that researchers had developed varieties that produced NO honey, and growers had quietly adopted them. 

The growers preferred the honey free types because the nectar tending to interfere with cotton harvesting. They kept quiet about the switch because they didn't want the beekeepers to make a big stink about the loss of the honey production. By the time the beekeepers realized what had happened, it was too late to do anything about it.

PLB

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