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The Bee BoxCHRISTI HEINTZ& MEG RIBOTTOWith the 2013 almond bloom right aroundthe corner, growers may be wondering whatto expect in bee strength and availability inthe coming months. Initial reports appearedencouraging. Total losses of managedhoneybee colonies in the United Statesdropped to 21.9 percent for the 2011-2012 overwinteringseason. That number was downfrom the approximately 30 percent averageloss beekeepers had experienced in the 2010-2011 survey conducted by the USDA- AIAand Bee Informed Partnership (BIP). Oneexplanation was the weather. Winter wasunusually warm; in fact, January 2012 was thefourth warmest January in U.S. history.»Growers can help beekeepers locate and stage colonies nearavailable bee forage while the bees wait for almond bloom.December- and January-blooming mustards provide goodbee nutrition. Photo by Christi HeintzTHE BEE BOX“A warm winter means less stress on bee colonies and may help them be more resistantto pathogens, parasites and other problems,” said Dr. Jeff Pettis, co-leader of the surveyand research leader of the USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, MD. Dr.Dennis vanEngelsdorp, University of Maryland, further added, “One in five bees lostis still huge and still quite a ways from the 13-14 percent loss beekeepers say would besustainable.” January started out “warm” but what soon followed in the coming monthswas to become one for the record books.Simply put, it was a tough summer for farmers in most of the country. One of thisyear’s top news stories was the weather. The most severe and extensive drought in atleast 25 years seriously affected U.S. agriculture, according to the USDA-EconomicResearch Service and the U.S. Drought Monitor.With the crippling drought came the heat. The U.S. experienced the third hottestsummer ever. And the year-to-date (January through August) period was also thewarmest first eight months ever recorded for the contiguous U.S., according to theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), whose records go backto 1895.The drought and heat then fueled wildfires. As of this past August, nearly 7 millionacres had been destroyed — more acreage across the U.S. in the first eight months ofany year since accurate records began in the early 1960s, cite federal fire officials.The impact of the drought may affect growers of pollinated crops dependent onhoneybees. Regions affected by the drought included the states of North and SouthDakota, Montana, Colorado, Idaho and Minnesota, areas where many commercialbeekeepers summer their colonies. The dry conditions gravely diminished available foodsources for honeybees. In parts of Colorado, for example, the USDA National HoneyReport (10/16/12) stated that the excessive drought killed foraging bees and queens.The reduced hive populations may reduce the number of hives available to be shippedto California for the almond pollination. This was echoed throughout the honeyproducing states as the dry and hot weather conditions wilted available forage resourcesfor honeybees. The drought required beekeepers to supplement their bees’ diet with»The above brochure isavailable to beekeepersand is being providedat California borderstations to more easilyenable bee trucks tobring bees to almonds.40 Almond Facts NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2012