# YouTube "almond pollination 2012"



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxcpGJ_2Df8


Interesting vid!

Question to all you pollination beekeepers out there,
The hives in this video is busting full of bees. When you place the hives into the Almond fields, do the hives re establish their swarming urge?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSEVEA2mHYM

Moving beehives during daylight. I see in this video they are netting the load to be shipped out. 
I see, from my outside perspective, the hives are shipped into the California holding yards throughout day and night, also into the almond groves.
Do you guys see any evidence of drag down from loss of foragers due to moving and drifting?


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Ian;864079The hives in this video is busting full of bees. When you place the hives into the Almond fields said:


> shake shake shake.... shake shake shake... Gee... I wonder what kind of sub Nick Fed.


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## Almondralf (Jun 20, 2011)

WOW - those are some monster bees in the middle of Feb. !!!!!!!!!!!!! This is not what you typically see when you rent bees for almond pollination!! Well done!


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## RAK (May 2, 2010)

Almondralf said:


> WOW - those are some monster bees in the middle of Feb. !!!!!!!!!!!!! This is not what you typically see when you rent bees for almond pollination!! Well done!


The results of feeding sub August-Jan.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

seems to me those hive would swarm
how do you guys manage big hives in single and a shallow?


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## RAK (May 2, 2010)

Bees don't swarm in the winter. Splits and shakes all you need. Typically they will swarm like crazy right out of the almonds.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I bet, hives that big, in fields of flowers, mid winter, I assume all that nectar would translate into brood. You would be able to split them down four ways to have them build for northern honey flows.



RAK said:


> Bees don't swarm in the winter. Splits and shakes all you need. Typically they will swarm like crazy right out of the almonds.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Right now my hives sit inside a wintering shed. There are about 1000 hives stacked four to six pallets high, each hive one box full of bees. They will sit there motionless until end of March. Down time.

Your bees get moved to California, worked and built up to spec, and used for pollination, then sent south to be worked and split for the countries honey flows. You guys beekeep year round, you get one extra season than we do here. 

very interesting stuff


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Ian said:


> I bet, hives that big, in fields of flowers, mid winter, .


Noop... those hives were in cellars in Idaho all winter. 

Ian, read my first post.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I do not see that first post, must be from the other topic I pulled the link from.

So, lets say I was able to send my hives south to pollinate in California,
I finish my summer work, prep my hives for winter, lock them up in my shed end of October.
Now, when would they leave the wintering shed to be shipped south?

>>feeding sub August-Jan


Im confused , one fellow is telling me they are hives locked in a cellar all winter before pollination, the other is telling me they have been fed sub from Aug to Jan, ??? Are they being fed in the shed?


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Ian said:


> I do not see that first post, must be from the other topic


Ian, post #3, how big are your hives RIGHT NOW as we speak?


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Ian said:


> Im confused , one fellow is telling me they are hives locked in a cellar all winter before pollination, the other is telling me they have been fed sub from Aug to Jan, ??? Are they being fed in the shed?


Ian, I'm going to try one last time, I sold Nick & Tony Noyes the sub( Nutra Bee) for there bees, the same bees that you see in there video, they winter in Idaho cellars.


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## KevinR (Apr 30, 2010)

How do you keep the SHB in check while feeding pollen patties?

I'm in TN, if I put a whole pollen patty on a hive. It's a dinner bell for SHB.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Clear as mud Keith, you have to understand Im only looking in at what you guys are doing, I know nothing of how migratory op work. I do know how bees act and react, and thats what I am not understanding. dates and timing and such. 

My hives are a box of bees, much as what is seen in the vid. Probably not that big though,
I think he said it was Feb 5th in the vid. I see that he is feeding syrup and patties at that time. I assume he will put them into the field shortly.

So has he just pulled them out of the cellar then or have the hives been there for a while?


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Kevin, I've been told by the boys in Texas that shb does not like Nutra Bee sub as much as they like the others.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

ha ha

I have no idea what you mean when you say "shake shake shake.... shake shake shake." in relation to wintering bees in a cellar


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## KevinR (Apr 30, 2010)

Keith Jarrett said:


> Kevin, I've been told by the boys in Texas that shb does not like Nutra Bee sub as much as they like the others.


I need a trial pack, so I can let you know how the TN shb feel. *grins*


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Ian said:


> Clear as mud Keith,


AAAH... LOL you made my day Ian. Ok, put syrup/sub on in fall (sept-oct) put in cellars around nov-Jan, put on ground in Calif feb 1 on, syrup/sub put into almonds.Hope im close Nick.
Ian, right now my bees are avg 18-24 frames of bees, whats your avg?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

not 18 - 24 frames. Hard to compare, two totally different winter management ops. But id say my hives are averaging 7-9 frames of bees, not including my nucs, 2-3 frames for them.

Im managing in singles, and we manage our bees to shut down in fall instead of ranping up brood rearing. we shut them down, sort of. Starting mid Sept right off the honey flow we feed them syrup and have them plugged full of syrup by middle of October. No brood, just bees in one box or two. They do not see the day of light again until April. If we fed our bees pollen sub just as we put them in we would see big gut problems right about end of feb into march. And that box of plugged honey gets them nicely to April to when we can feed once again.

Can i ask you another question,.? lol


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Ian said:


> we would see big gut problems right about end of feb into march.


Had you fed them Nutra Bee sub we have a micro-flora builder in our sub, which would solve most gut problems.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

even for 5 months in confinement ?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

there are some guys here that will take the bees out of the shed early march on a nice day, feed them patties, and wrap them up or send them back in for a month. Their bees look good by May.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

I'll let you know how the boys up in peace river come out.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

So what I can gather, the bees are taken out of winter, sent into the almond groves, where they are fed up and placed into the flowering fields. One brood cycle, two brood cycles, and then out to be split. So by the time they start swarming on the second brood cycle the boys should be splitting them by then.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Keith Jarrett said:


> I'll let you know how the boys up in peace river come out.


yes, I would like that. They winter a bit shorter than here though, but all along the same lines of thought.
I dont understand how fall time sub feeding would benefit us though, we need it late winter early spring for the brood.


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## JD's Bees (Nov 25, 2011)

Ian most hives are moved into the wintering sheds about now and taken out some time in April.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

same as us then. 

how do you manage your late winter Chinooks ? gets pretty warm your way


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## JD's Bees (Nov 25, 2011)

Some will take the bees out for cleansing flights and a quick check on stores. I've heard of some people putting drums of snow or ice into the sheds to help cool things down but don't know for sure.
Pollen sub in fall could help fatten up the winter bees and increase the overall health of the hive. As far as having sub on all winter though I just can't see that, too much chance for dysentry I think.


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## Nick Noyes (Apr 28, 2005)

We start sub end of aug. until mid oct. Go into storage about thanksgiving and start shipping to california jan. 20th. Start making nucs, shaking, pulling brood about march 10th. Bees swarm from 1st of march on, but the almond growers don't seem to complain about it.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

when do you pull them out of the almond groves?


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

March 10-15th on.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Do they stay in holding yards in Cali or are they sent straight south and then worked through ?


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## RAK (May 2, 2010)

Feed Bees sub August-Thansgiving. Loaded up and sent to Yards late nov early dec. Given more sub until flowers pop out. Nick... Why winter in cellars? They will come out of winter with easy 15 frames in Jan w/o any cellars.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

RAK said:


> Why winter in cellars? They will come out of winter with easy 15 frames in Jan w/o any cellars.


15 frame avg... easy..... Jan..... 

RAK, that is a nice avg for Jan, if your bees avg that, WELL DONE SIR.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Do the pollinator grower count frames of brood to determine strength or do they count frames of bees


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Only beekeepers are worried about brood. growers just want bees.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

that would make hive assessments very quick!


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## Almondralf (Jun 20, 2011)

Unfortunately there is still a lot of growers out there who only count Hive-boxes !


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## RAK (May 2, 2010)

Keith Jarrett said:


> 15 frame avg... easy..... Jan.....
> 
> RAK, that is a nice avg for Jan, if your bees avg that, WELL DONE SIR.


Requeening and pollen sub. 

Keith, You know this better than I. The only drawback is that I have trouble keeping those young queens up to date on the syrup. I would say that if bees are at 12 frames then you are very good.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Almonddralf #39, very well said.


RAK, your right, requeening is huge, the best sub in the world isn't going to light up a lousy queen.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24tII88UJ4I&feature=g-all-u

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrwnyf0aCjw

I have not understood the actual scale of Almond production before now. These groves are not little production farms like we see up here with our cherrie orchards and vineyards in BC. Almond production looks more like our field crops we have out here in the prairies, acres and acres as far as the eye can see of nothing but crop! 


Wow, that is very impressive!


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Must be cold up in Manitoba these days.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

ha ha ha yes. 

whats almond shucking


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## Nick Noyes (Apr 28, 2005)

RAK, You don't happen to have some nice dry, secure place in Ca we could set 14 loads of bees? Preferably in the Madera area away from other bees. I will bring you a box of honey for your trouble.


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## RAK (May 2, 2010)

Nick, wish I could help but my piece of Californian paradise is only good for a single load.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I have been chatting with a fellow via email, this is one of his emails. 
Pollination sounds like alot of work! $150 is hardly enough

Ian,

I've been reading your posts on almond pollination. Basically there is never any "down time" if you're going to pollinate almonds. You're trying to keep the queens laying as much, and for as long as possible, so you have "big" hives. Since you are pushing the queens so hard it is essential that you requeen every year. Hives are in honey production during the summer in Wisconsin, USA. Hives winter in east Texas. East Texas has a tremendous amount of early pollen, but poor nector flows in spring. Since I work for guys who do alomond pollination, maybe this timeline will help you. I'll start the timeline with the move to Texas in the fall.

Late October - 1st week of November; Transport hives to Texas, feed syrup, pollen sub, treat for mites, nosema, and AFB. Inspect all hives for being queenrite. 2 rounds of feeding, and 2 rounds of treatments. These are all doubles or story and a halfs. Each brood box has a division board feeder, so it is possible to feed almost 2 gallons of syrup to each hive if it needed it, on each visit. Hives are intentionally left "light" on food stores to increase the number of hives that can be transported on a truck. This takes approximately 2 weeks to do while in Texas.

Mid December; Feed pollen sub and syrup. Inspect all hives. This takes about a week.

Last week of January; Inspect all hives. Equalize hives. Feed and apply pollen sub patty. Pull all hives in from the outyards. Pressure wash outsides of hives and pallets. (Texas has fire ants, and equipment with them will be rejected at the border) Washed equipment is placed onto tarps, and never touch the soil until they return from California. Load trucks and transport to California. (sometimes it's warmer while pressure washing, sometimes it's below freezing. No matter what the temperature, it's a mud pit) This takes about 2 weeks. Hives are sent to Californis about the 2nd week of February.

1st week of March; start queen rearing operations in Texas. Select breeder hives were held back from California. Breeders are fed syrup and treated for nosema. Grafting starts about the end of the 2nd week in March. Grafting is timed to start about a week before the bees return from California.

Mid March; Hives return from California. Feed and treat for mites, AFB, and Nosema. Inspect all hives for queenrite. Feed all hives syrup. Split hives into singles and 4 frame Nucs. Pinch queens as splits are made. Move split to new yard. 24 hours after the split, install queen cells that are due to emerge in the next 12 to 24 hours. Feed all splits syrup. Splits are left alone for the next 3-4 weeks. This allows for queen emergence, maturing, mating, and egg laying. This takes about 4 weeks.

End of April; Inspect all hives for queenrite and brood pattern. Feed syrup and treat for Nosema. Install Nucs into haves that are not queenrite. Stockpile hives for transport to Wisconsin. This takes about 2 weeks.

1st week of May; Hives arrive in Wisconsin. Disperse hives to outyards. Inspect for queenrite. Feed all hives syrup. The hives coming from Texas to Wisconsin are all singles.

End of May; Inspect all hives for queenrite, feed syrup and treat for Nosema and mites. Install Nucs into any hives that are not queenrite. Add second deep brood chamber.

June, July, August, beginning of September; honey production.

Late September and early October; Feed syrup and pollen sub, treat for mites and Nosema.

Late October -1st week of November; transport hives to Texas.

I hope this helps.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Ian, I didn't catch where they went on Vacation?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

ha ha ha , that is what my wife says about the whole project. California!


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