»Bees³

Bees, bees and elephants, invisible bees.

To get a honeybee hive ready to pollinate almonds in February, beekeepers must trick the bees into thinking it's spring, so the hive will be forced to lay brood, build its numbers and fatten its workers. Pollen patties - caked mixtures of sucrose, brewer's yeast and human-harvested flower pollen often imported from China are fed to the bees. Corn syrup is pumped into a plastic feeder in each hive through a gas pump. The mixture is tough to get right, and often gives the bees nosema, or diarrhea. Beekeepers spend an average of $20 per hive on winter feed. For a modest operation with 2,500 hives, that's a $50,000 bill for fake flowers.

Those who migrate to California in the fall to prep their bees for the almonds must find land to put them on. As development sucks up open space, many beekeepers find themselves driving farther and farther to their bee yards. Recently, some beekeepers are experimenting with storing hives for the winter in temperature-controlled potato cellars in the High Plains, and trucking them in right before bloom, saving on feeding costs.

The Chronicle article quoted above also has tit-bits on the second-largest beekeeper in the States (now that's an image) and on the honeybee matchmaker, whose wife's name is a palindrome for amen. All together, the narrative of the agribusiness of honey and almonds, two beautiful foods, makes me a little queasy. The characters might have stepped from a David Lynch movie, the farmers become further entrenched in abysmal business and poor agriculture, and China makes all the money.