February

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February is the month the Idaho winter ends for the bees, going from winter to spring in a day when they take a 600 mile truck ride to California for pollination duty. Almonds are a major agricultural crop in California with orchards stretching from Red Bluff in the north 400 miles through the San Joaquin Valley to Bakersfield in the south. There are over half a million acres of almond orchards in the state and without honey bees, there is no almond crop. It takes about a million bee hives to pollinate the crop, but there are less than a third of this number residing in the state. Bees are shipped in from all over the country and rented to pollinate the orchards which bloom around the middle of the month. The next four pages provide a picture of the activity this month for the bees and the bee keeper,

For the bees, the trip to California by truck is planned so they arrive just as the sun goes down, get unloaded and spread out through the orchards that night; placing them in groups - usually 6 pallets or 24 hives per drop. After placement, they are left undisturbed to "settle in" for several days, during which time they get acclimated to the area and begin flying - something they haven't been able to do for the past months in while storage in Idaho. After this little respite, the work of inspecting each hive for health and strength begins. When the almond bloom occurs, there must be a sufficient field force of bees to complete the pollination during the short time the flowers are open. Hive population is checked for strength and hive strength is measured by the number of frames in the hive covered with bees. Ultimately, it is the number of bees, not the number of hives, that make it possible to pollinate the crop during the short time interval of the bloom. Those hives not meeting the minimum frame count requirement are removed and not rented. The hive must not only have the necessary frames of bees, but it must also be queen-right (have a viable queenbee) to ensure an on going bee population in the hive.

The hive inspection process begins using a hive tool to open and remove the lid followed by a few puffs of smoke to calm the bees. Frames are then removed from the hive as necessary for checking (above). The hive tool in the picture is two tools in one with a "hooked" end for lifting frames, while the other end (shown on the next page) is for prying and separating boxes or lids. The smoker is a great help in calming the bees during the process. In addition to the calming effect, the smoke triggers their naturally programed reactive instinct to survive in the presence of fire. That is to return immediately to their combs to fill up on honey prior to taking flight when the fire arrives, as would be the case when a forest fire occurs.
We use burlap in the smoker - it's readily available and works well. In addition, it's been tested and found to be noncarcinogenic. The trick to getting it going is to roll the burlap into a fairly tight roll and light the ragged end where it was cut. After letting it burn for several minutes, it is then inserted in the smoker to begin smoldering. After a few minutes of this, and a puff or two on the bellows, it's ready to go to work.