The Great Bee Migration: Supply Analysis of Honey Bee Colony Shipments into California for Almond Pollination Services

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the number of honey bee colonies performing pollination services for the California almond industry has grown steadily and now equals a substantial share of all colonies in the U.S. Most U.S. beekeeping operations have not expanded their colony numbers at the current levels of almond pollination fees. Thus, as almond acreage has increased, the marginal supplier of colonies has moved further away from California, increasing interstate shipments. We provide a conceptual representation of the supply and demand of U.S. colonies for almond pollination, and utilize the relatively inelastic demand for colonies to explore spatial elasticities of supply. We analyze temporal and spatial characteristics of the supply of colonies for almond pollination using colony shipment data from 2007 through 2018 provided by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. We use a geographically weighted regression to calculate supply elasticities for each state during this time period by combining the shipment data with prices from the California State Beekeeper's Association pollination fee survey. Florida and Texas, where beekeepers have hesitated to participate in almond pollination due to relatively high transportation costs and the potential for local honey production at the time of almond bloom, have some of the highest price elasticities of supply. This suggests that beekeepers in areas with low transportation and/or opportunity costs have supplied all available colonies, and increases in almond pollination fees have had little effect. We estimate that Florida, Georgia and Texas had the largest number of colonies which did not participate in almond pollination in 2017, so further increases in supply are likely to come from these states.

Frontiers in effective control of problem parasites in beekeeping

“…The parasite burden placed on managed bees by pests and pathogens impacts the beekeeping industry directly, but is also a wider problem for agriculture in parts of the world where honeybees provide pollination services ( Delaplane, 2021 ). This manifests in multiple ways; beekeepers suffering high overwintering losses struggle to grow colony counts to meet demand ( Goodrich et al, 2019 ), and colonies weakened by ill-health (including parasites) are less effective supplementary pollinators ( Dedej and Delaplane, 2003 ; Goodrich and Goodhue, 2020 ). Currently in the US demand from growers for pollination services for certain crops (e.g.…”

Growers follow the label: An analysis of bee-toxic pesticide use in almond orchards during bloom

“…Beekeepers and almond growers may also consider mitigating issues caused by pesticide damage through the use of clauses in their almond pollination contracts. In fact, in a survey of growers attending the 2015 Almond Conference, roughly 30% of respondents included pesticide clauses in their pollination contracts (Goodrich 2017).…”

“…The current recommendation is two colonies per acre for maximum pollination services (USDA and FCIC 2018). This meant that, in 2018, approximately 2 million colonies were required in California's Central Valley to pollinate almonds -around 81% of managed honey bee colonies in the United States (Goodrich et al 2019).…”

“…Our objective was to trace growers' application of these chemicals during almond bloom and assess the potential risks of pesticide exposure for honey bee colonies. We evaluated growers' pesticide use in the San Joaquin Valley, the region where the greatest number of almond orchards (CDFA 2019), and subsequently bee colonies, concentrate each year (Goodrich 2017).…”

Honey Bees, Almonds, and Colony Mortality: An Economic Simulation of the U.S. Pollination Market

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