Bee health is a big concern for the Almond Board, which has teamed up with Project Apis m. to help improve the future of honey bees. Sabrina Hill reports.
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The Executive Director for Project Apis m., Christi Heintz, says almond growers need the largest number of bee colonies out of any crop in the US – to the tune of more than 1.5 million colonies heading to California each February and March for the almond bloom.
She has a request of growers: Plant additional forage for bees along with the almond crop. She says if the growers do plant extra forage for the bees around their trees, it helps provide a wider range of nutrition for the bees. The growers don’t even have to buy the seeds themselves. Project Apis m. will send the grower the seeds if the grower agrees to plant them.
She says some ideal planting scenarios would be in a young orchard where the grower plants between rows, planting the forage around the perimeter of the almond orchard or planting in areas like access roads.
Project Apis m. is providing a pollination symposium during the Almond Conference in December. The conference is December 5 through the 3rd in Sacramento. The pollination symposium is that final day, December 5.
For more on Project Apis m., click here.
For more on the Almond Board, click here.
To register for the Almond Conference, click here.