thanks-enjoyed your almonds piece on bee-l. -----Original Message----- From: Excerpts from BEE-L <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: Sunday, January 17, 1999 9:25 PM Subject: Almonds From: Andy Nachbaur <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] This is a reworked post from the past, Jan 17, 1996 was the last time I posted it, its long as I did it. Many of the early posts to this list were long as we had yet to learn about writing in sound bytes so to speak. I am re posting it as its that time of year when a majority of the US commercial beekeeping industry is gathering their bees in California to pollinate the almond bloom and glean much needed operating cash for the coming season. It is hard to believe that over the years not much has changed to spite attacks by several flavors of mites, killer bees, and increased almond acreage, we still have a surplus of honeybees that are not rented. ALMONDS & BEEKEEPERS 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. The heavier the bloom set the smaller the almonds. When this happens it takes several years for the trees to recover. 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 if any at all could support themselves off the almond pollination rentals alone, and sadly most 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!" There is no doubts in my mind that this effort would made a new market for Chinese honey and have zero effect on beekeepers who pollinate almonds. The almonds are shook from the trees when dry and the hull or husk has split from the nut 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 in 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 varieties, 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 $800,000,000.00 (est.1998 farm crop 500 million pounds) 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 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 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.) Queen breeders produce fewer cells during the almond bloom when almond pollen and nectar are their only sources. 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 from almond flowers 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 neighbors. 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 beehives 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 real 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 almond 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. Almonds are a strange crop in that the market is dependent on world trade. Unlike honey the world price has always been high enough to support the industry in the US with the market off shore. The financial problems in Asia have had a detrimental effect and almond exports are down 23% and farm prices are down 15%.. All selling of almonds is regulated by law by a Almond Board that determines how much of the crop will be sold to whom for what uses and appears to be working to the growers advantage but not to the consumers as almonds are still a luxury food item for the average person in the US not unlike honey. Chow, the OLd Drone http://beenet.com (c)Permission is given to copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)OPINIONS are not necessarily facts. USE AT OWN RISK! --- Visit http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/beel.htm to search the BEE-L archives for any word: the easy, easy way or to update or change your subscription options. ---