It’s about time for the annual mass migration of honeybees to California, and new research is helping lower the chances the pollinators and their offspring will die while they’re visiting the West Coast.
It’s about time for the annual mass migration of honeybees to California, and new research is helping lower the chances the pollinators and their offspring will die while they’re visiting the West Coast.
Each winter, professional beekeepers from around the nation stack hive upon hive on trucks destined for the Golden State, where February coaxes forward the sweet-smelling, pink and white blossoms of the Central Valley’s almond trees.
Almond growers rent upwards of 1.5 million colonies of honeybees a year, at a cost of around $300 million. Without the bees, there would be no almonds, and there are nowhere near enough native bees to take up the task of pollinating the trees responsible for more than 80 percent of the world’s almonds. The trouble was, bees and larvae were dying while in California, and nobody was sure exactly why. The problem started in adults only, and beekeepers were most worried about loss of queens.
Read more at Ohio State University
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