# Crocodile tears not allowed by almond growers in 2013.



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

For those of us who pollinate almonds the best time of the year is about here. If you have been doing this a while you have probably dealt with a grower or two who think the price of bees is way to high.

If ANYONE tries to pull that trick on you this year I recommend you go to the bank with them and wipe away their crocodile tears with their golden Kleenex. 

With the surge in prices the last few months.....even the California varieties hoovering just short of 3 bucks and the nons substantially more any decent grower can easliy afford $200 today compared to 150 last year. If they pull the crybaby trick tell them you will take a pollination price increase that is only 50% of what they are getting compared to the price of nuts a year ago. 

More stories of bees crashing at the same time more trees are going in the ground. Met another "row crop guy" last night at the basketball game who just put in 70 acres this week. Total of 200 new acres in the ground in the last 3 weeks within 3 miles of our ranch. People don't put that kind of money into the dirt when the payback outlook is $0.

If there ever was a time for this industry to ride coat tails of a boom this is it. Tell them to put the Handkerchief back in their pocket and drag out another 20-40 bucks next year.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

I hear yeah Phil, but what I fear the most is the beekeeper, they, in the past, have done a great job of keeping the price down.


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## soupcan (Jan 2, 2005)

The neighbor down the road a bit told me he can leave the dinks to die in Texas or ship them to almonds & get $200 for 4 frames of bees & leave the to die in California.
Growers are a screaming that there are no bees to " bee " had for there groves.
Some brokers are asking for payment up front on the slow payers due to the shortage before the boxes hit the ground.
Can't say I blame them.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

Almond milk driving the boom?


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

Gypsi said:


> Almond milk driving the boom?



Is that a serious question? If you can name three people who you know who drink that stuff I can easily call you a hippy or a liberal. 

From what I understand a big share of the credit can go to the ALMOND BOARD who have done a killer job of penetrating the pocket books of the newly rich ( and not so rich) in China, India, And recently to some extent the folks in Russia.... 

Health wise Almonds are a fabulous product. Now that the rest of the world is rich cause we gave them all our money they can buy our stuff. Now thats NUTS!


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

Stupid question. I'm allergic to cow's milk. So is one of my daughters and 2 of my grandchildren. Never mind, leaving.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Some growers in my area are offering $225. I'm a hobby beekeeper & Have gotten calls this year.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Honey-4-All said:


> Is that a serious question? If you can name three people who you know who drink that stuff I can easily call you a hippy or a liberal.


There is no reason to issue insults over consumption of almond milk.  Here are some US 2011 market numbers:


> Last year, 11% of adults were consumers of soy milk, according to the organization, while 9% consumed almond milk. Rice milk came third in popularity. *Almond milk sales increased 79% last year. *Meanwhile soy milk sales are declining, with the total soy food and beverage market shrinking about 15% from 2008 to 2010, according to the report.
> 
> _Full article:
> _http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Ma...th-soy-as-favorite-non-dairy-milk-alternative


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

I think that we can agree that anything produced by almonds means more almond trees in the ground which in turn means more money in the beekeepers pocket. Supply and demand, almond orchards need bees and there for beekeepers have the potential to make more money as well. So lets not bash anything that could potentially provide more money in a pollinators pocket, right!


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

Gypsi said:


> Stupid question. I'm allergic to cow's milk. So is one of my daughters and 2 of my grandchildren. Never mind, leaving.


I'm lactose intolerant, but I love milk and milk by products so much that I just deal with it, and my poor family deals with it as well while I'm crop dusting every room!

I've tried almond milk, ain't bad, but costly.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

BeeGhost said:


> I love milk and milk by products so much that I just deal with it,


I reckon there are varying degrees of intolerance. I, too, loved milk (ice cream, cheese, etc) but 'dealing with it' is no longer an option. I might add that I've tried soy milk...yuck! I may try some almond milk....I really do miss a bowl of cereal some mornings.
ps...I'm pretty sure that using almond milk doesn't have anything to do with one's political of philosophical leanings.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

It's too bad when the beekeeper/grower relationship turns into an adversarial one, they need each other. Not trying to assign blame, just sayin..........


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

jim lyon said:


> It's too bad when the beekeeper/grower relationship turns into an adversarial one


Just guessing here but I’d bet that in ‘the old days’ when a grower and beekeeper worked directly with one another it wasn’t an adversarial relationship.
Now…with the need for a million and a half hives, brokers in between, bees have become a commodity and I expect that for the growers and beekeepers who experienced those old days, losing that personal connection is a sad thing.
I’ve seen that sort of thing happen in other businesses….and I wouldn't think that this is any different.


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

jim lyon said:


> It's too bad when the beekeeper/grower relationship turns into an adversarial one, they need each other



Couple of points about my original post... 

Some growers complain no matter whats going on. Most of the time its because they have little clue about the expenses incurred in delivering quality pollination units. Other times they just complain for the sake of complaining. 

My point was that with the price of nuts currently growers really don't have much to complain about at all. A proportional situation would be if the price of honey went to $4.00 a pound by the semi load and the beekeeper complained to the syrup guy that sugar is now at 60 cents and its way over priced and not really fair to the bee guy. Could you honestly look in the mirror mutter under your breath that the syrup guy was making to much in such a situation. Wouldn't see me doing it. 

Secondly no offense to the almond milk drinkers among us. If anyone can crunch the numbers and tell me how much of the current poundage and price increase is directly attributable to Almond milk consumption I'm willing to see the number. My hunch is that the number is less than 1/4 of a % at the most. Negligible in the big picture of pushing pricing margins to the up side.

FYI: ten years back I decided to join the ranks of the almond growers because they had a habitual habit of driving better pickups than the bee guys. Figured if you cant beat them might as well join them. From the little bit we grow our checks from last years crop aught to be about 45 thousand bucks more than the 2011 crop. I always place the 3 framers at home and give the payors the big ones. Its amazing how the dinks can kick butt. They do a great job for us. The price of almonds is way up for which I'm thankful. The consumers seem to be willing to pay the current price and bees need to follow the trend. 

As for the grower/keeper long term relationships. That seem to go out the window in 05/06/07 when the crashes started happening and massive fields went on line in a big way. The growers wanted to CTA and many went to multiple bee guys instead of just one so they didn't bet the whole race on one horse that might be dead in the end of January.


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

KQ6AR said:


> Some growers in my area are offering $225. I'm a hobby beekeeper & Have gotten calls this year.


Dan:

Who are these guys that have 225 in their pocket? I'm sitting on 150 hives right now waiting for a guy to cough up his 2012 money. Wouldn't mind the extra $85 if he doesn't come through in the next couple of days. Patience is in order as its just 3 miles from home which beats 100 miles for the $5.00 additional that is generally garnered elsewhere. Even I will hit the road for that kind of cash. PM me if you get any more of those calls.


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## suttonbeeman (Aug 22, 2003)

last year the first load we sent out graded 12 frames with 4 20 framers. three graded 5. we had a contract for 8 fr ave 6 fr min. we didnt get paid for the three 5 framers even though we were 50% over thd ave. guess where those bees are today...thats right in oange groves in FL. second load i thought was better than first load. went thru some cold weather and i shoukd have checked the forecast. with lots of brood some colonies liast some cluster due to trying to cover it. with nets on the truck and rain at 45 deg when my driver arrived they wete griping the bees were no good. must have gad a exray machine to know in those conditions. tgat area gad a dry bloom with little nectar and pollen. I flew out Feb 20 got bees fed and orchard was 95 percent bloom. Four weeks later we got released. there wasn any viable bloom for the ladt 10 days just a few pedals bees went downhill. i figure i lost 100k in lost honey due to delay in releasing as we missed two weeks of orange and bees went downhill
the grower needs to realize if he wants bees he needs to wirkvwith the beekeeper! now guess where those where those bees are today... thats right in orange groves in Florida. Fir seven years I fought the morans at the bordrr and could never get the bees released...I didnt want them untul the bloom was over but didnt want them sitting there two weeks with one pedal a tree and nothing to work! Hsd my best beez ever this year...would have averaged at least 16 frames next week...weakest ones are 6 and 7. Had a great buildup since they started brooding up first week in Dec. Many have 8 plus frames of solid brood been pulling splits all week! So almond griwers eat your heart out! anyone want some good bees? price is 250 and you pay freight unload and reload cash on delivery otherwise im staying on east coast.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Gypsi said:


> Almond milk driving the boom?


Didn't know this product existed till couple weeks ago when I saw it on the supermarket shelf, so took some home to try.

All I can say, freaking horrible. This product will never sell as big as soy milk, most people will try it just once.


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## ribbit (May 3, 2011)

Oldtimer said:


> Didn't know this product existed till couple weeks ago when I saw it on the supermarket shelf, so took some home to try.
> 
> All I can say, freaking horrible. This product will never sell as big as soy milk, most people will try it just once.


YMMV. I Hate soy milk, and love (plain, unsweetened) almond milk. Did you have the refrigerated or shelf stable? IMO the latter is not nearly as good. Also, there's been a lot of anti-soy info going around which might influence consumption.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Ha Ha, well like they say, one mans meat is another mans poison LOL! If you like it, all power to you. Yes I had the shelf stable.

Yes you are right about the growing anti-soy murmurings. Seems soy was origionally promoted mainly on the basis that it was a vegetarian alternative for protein etc, and as such, considered "good'.
But as time has gone on there's been a few health issues discovered with it, such as it being overdosed in mimic female hormones, they are now recommending pre adolescent boys only have it as a very occasional treat.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

So Phil what was the price of almonds last year? What about this year just so I can make a relative comparison of pollination price. Over here we have growers on the blueberries that cry as well. They have these late varities that made things a pain because of the extra 10 days. Last year even later varieties requiring and extra 10 days. Based on the increase of about 2-3 weeks required for these later varieties blueberry pollination price should increase by about 40-50% in my way of thinking. Growers for sure will cry. It is universal, spans all crops and varieties across all continentsa.

Jean-Marc


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