Perhaps the most significant of all the single crops affecting honeybees in the United States is the California almond.
California is the world’s largest producer of almonds, and it takes 1.3 million beehives — each populated by tens of thousands of bees — to pollinate them, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Migratory beekeepers, who move truckloads of hives from state to state to pollinate seasonal crops, converge in California every year in early spring.
Oregon State University honeybee researcher Ramesh Sagili believes that’s a problem.
He is studying bee nutrition, and preliminary results show drastic effects when bees are restricted to just one type of pollen at a time — specifically, almond pollen.
There’s no question that almonds need bees.
To read more: http://www.newsregister.com/article?articleTitle=how+california+almonds+may+be+hurting+bees–1303506977–608–community
