# almonds



## ga.beeman (Mar 29, 2009)

What is the going price per hive on almonds this year look like


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

Why do you ask, are you sending hives to CA?

I ask, because if your no in the business of pollinating in CA, what does it matter.

Happy New Year to ALL.

The pollinators will be in either Phoenix, AZ @ the AHPA meeting or Las Vegas, NV for the ABF meetings in Jan, 2012 to find the answers because this is our business.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

At this point in time there are plenty of bees available. In general there is a slight downward pressure on prices. I am hearing the number 140 repeatedly.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Many of which come from the East Coast. Not mine though.


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## ga.beeman (Mar 29, 2009)

Well Larry I am not pollinating in Ca. but I am looking at what i want to do next year. Thanks Tom for the reply


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

Tom , my word on the street is shortage, bees good quality, to many new trees, as stated at Almond board meeting, somewhere 50 to 80k new a acers on line this year. I have multiple growers that are increasing hive #,s by 25% or more just because they turned a new leaf.

GA.Beeman, I would suggest a good look at the total picture before you jump in, not all is what it seems.

A happy to new year to all, God will bless us all.


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## Almond Grower (May 25, 2005)

LSPender said:


> Tom , my word on the street is shortage, bees good quality, to many new trees, as stated at Almond board meeting, somewhere 50 to 80k new a acers on line this year.


 50 to 80k new a acres coming on line this year? No way!

Because of drought and low prices new almond land being planted has been less than 30,000 acres per year since 2007. You also have to subtract out the old orchards being pulled. The big plantings from 2004-06 were in production last year. Bearing acreage has leveled off and will stay that way for at least four more years.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Up North ( sac north) things seem to be in the 140-150 range ( straight run.... no frame count as that's another price) Had a 15 k beekeeper dump a "backyard" contract in my lap last week as he had gained a 4.5 k hive contract nearer to home and was bailing out of "small ones" in my area. Growers seem fine at 140- 145. 

Talked with a 50 year beekeeper yesterday and he said any attempts to go beyond that where being pushed back by the new guys who fly the green and red flag as well as the guys who fly the red flag. They seem to put a lot of downward pressure on price in the Arbuckle-williams area if not elsewhere as they operate with free GVT loans.

IF the heat and the dry weather keeps up its going to be an early bloom with all the funds received going to the syrup man once we bail out of the almonds. Great bee weather now but doesn't bode well for the future. The hills are the driest for early January that I've seen in 30 years. Growers watering orchards around home. Ours will be next week if the forecast has no rain for the week following. All the grass is stunted if existent at all.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Honey-4-All said:


> pushed back by the new guys who fly the green and red flag as well as the guys who fly the red flag. They seem to put a lot of downward pressure on price in the Arbuckle-williams area if not elsewhere as they operate with free GVT loans.


That was spot on, Phil LOL...


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

Fresno Dadants branch has a list of over 10,000 colonies looking for pollination placement. Too many bees come out here without a contract, drop price to get placed.


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

On Monday alone I received calls from several Calif. beekeepers totaling over 4,000 hive looking for placement. We have a waiting list of over 12,000 hives looking for Almonds. If needed I could come up with 15,000 to 18,000 hives already sitting in Calif waiting for placement. We receive an average of two calls a day from growers shopping and kicking tires. They "claim" they are not paying more than $125.00 per hive.


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

I will gladly rent a "hive" for $ 125 I can deliver 10,000 asap. Now if they want a crop, because that crop is based on pollination the smart grower will invest around $ 155 to $175 for excellent bee hives that have 8 + frames of bees, in fact they should be offering a bonus for greater frame count, for their is a direct correlation to $$$ in the growers pocket and thats the name of the game ROI. I currently have prices at 145 for 6 frame and 155 for 8 frame, this by the semi load pricing, smaller lots pay additional $5 per hive.


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## busy bee apiary (Aug 7, 2010)

They "claim" they are not paying more than $125.00 per hive.


ok, just curious but when a grower comes to you with this price what is your response to the grower?


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

Sales class 101, the reason some growers are negotiating with the Beeks is, because they can , because we let them! Does that same grower negoitate with the water or fuel business, most likely not. Always dig for the real reason behind the person.


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## benstung (Mar 20, 2011)

Hey Larry since you are so smart maybe you should start offering these classes to teach the rest of us


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## suttonbeeman (Aug 22, 2003)

benstung....if you dont listen to Larry you will get stung again!


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

busy bee apiary said:


> They "claim" they are not paying more than $125.00 per hive.
> 
> 
> ok, just curious but when a grower comes to you with this price what is your response to the grower?


Weather their "claim" is valid or not, when I tell them our price is $20.00 per frame, with a minimum of $140.00 they move on. The point being we do not get the contrat so I assumes the guy that accepts $125.00 did get the contract.


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

I agree you might want to listen and LEARN from Larry.


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

When it comes to setting, pollination prices Beekeepers are their own worst enemy.
Beekeepers are the ones that drive the pollination prices down.
Stop and think for a moment what would happen if there were no bees available to pollinate almonds!
There are few, if any, other industries in California that are experiencing such an increasingly wide disparity between the balances of supply and demand for services than the almond pollination industry. In economic terms, the demand for almond pollination services is almost a Perfectly Inelastic Demand. That is, the demand for bee colonies SHOULD exhibits zero responsiveness to price changes; no matter what the price, the quantity demanded remains the same.
There are no substitutes for bee pollination of almonds. Bees are essential to almond production: if the tree is NOT pollinated, it will NOT produce nuts.
In the classic Supply and Demand Curve, the demand curve slopes down from left to right indicating as price increase, demand decline; the Inelastic Demand Curve is vertical, if the almond grower requires an average of two colonies per acre, then the demand for 705,000 acres requires (demands) 1.4 million colonies. This represents over 57% of all the colonies in the United States.
California has approximately 500,000 colonies locally. Over one million, 71% of all colonies used to pollinate next season’s Almond crop will be imported from other states and incurring substantial freight costs which should be passed on to the growers.
Theoretically, growers will pay whatever pollination price they have to if they can pass the cost on to the buyer. Growers as a group “bid for,” or “bid up” the price of colonies.
While pollination services set the minimums, cost demands drive the cost of the hive up. 
Obviously, from a practical standpoint growers will not pay pass a point for which they cannot recover their expense. Currently pollination fees account for 20% of the cost of production of almonds. The growers have a dilemma, if they do not pay for pollination services, the trees will not produce nuts. Current the world almond inventory supply is between 5–6 percent, which is considered a very low surplus. Those growers that do pay for pollination services will receive a premium for their almonds.
Demand for almonds are not Perfectly Inelastic, consumers do not and will not pay a higher price for almonds without affecting the demand. There are substitutes for almonds.
Nuff Said!


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## Shastina Millwork (Jun 21, 2007)

very interesting posts, but coming from a woodenware manufacturer and talking to MANY bee keeps in the commercial world, Larry is correct that beekeepers are their own worst enemy and actually DO drive prices down. As a non-beekeeper, I predicted this years bees for almonds to be SHORT thus driving the price of almond pollination UP. reason why SHORT? It was a bad weather year in the north thereby lessening the honey production thereby most keepers scraped every bit of honey from the frames to sell honey and leaving very little honey for the bees to feed, therefore, feeding the bees corn syrup and the like and weakening colonies even more and as an end result, having less bees to pollinate almonds and SHOULD drive the almond price UP. Although, there are always the WEAK SISTERS out there that grab the first $125/colony they can and growers know that and are constantly trying to find those WEAK SISTERS. posts on this thread that claim that bee pollination is 20% of the growers expense? Well, it is proven that pollination is actually 5% of the growers gross revenue (which is still low). The facts are that the further north (stockton and north) is more in the 125-130 range, modesto, CA and south should be $150 +


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Me thinks I'll just stay quite for now.


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## benstung (Mar 20, 2011)

Hey steve 
how much are your contracts for ?
you must have signed contracts by now


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

benstung said:


> how much are your contracts for ?
> you must have signed contracts by now


We have signed a little over 5,800 as of todate, the average is $20.00 per frame with a min of $140.00


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## benstung (Mar 20, 2011)

interesting


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## mnbeekeeper (Jun 30, 2010)

keith, heres your cue, chime in now!!!! so if you got hives sitting on 12 frames of bees are you really getting 240 a hive. is there a maximum?? if there is a 140 minimum.


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## Stevebeeman (May 22, 2011)

Shastina Millwork said:


> posts on this thread that claim that bee pollination is 20% of the growers expense? Well, it is proven that pollination is actually 5% of the growers gross revenue (which is still low).
> 
> Just curious, what is your source that pollination cost are 5% of revenue.
> FSA and U.C. CO-OP extension use much higher numbers.
> ...


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