Honey Bee Best Management Practices.

Almond growers and beekeepers are responsible for creating an environment that allows honey bees to do what almond trees need most — pollinate. All those responsible for pollination and pest management during bloom should establish a clear communication chain amongst each other, as each person in the chain plays an important role with specific responsibilities that include making sure that the right information is shared at the right time with the right person.

As part of an ongoing commitment to honey bee health, the Almond Board of California offers a comprehensive set of Honey Bee Best Management Practices (BMPs). Developed with input from the almond community, beekeepers, researchers, UC Davis, California and U.S. regulators, and chemical registrants, the Honey Bee BMPs represent the Almond Board’s most extensive educational documents to date to ensure that almond orchards remain a safe and healthy place for honey bees and all pollinators. This resource lays out simple, practical steps that almond growers, together with beekeepers, Pest Control Advisors and pesticide applicators, can take to protect and promote pollinator health in and around their orchards.

Honey Bee Forage.

Research shows that planting or allowing natural forage to grow between the tree rows around the outside of the orchard does not compete with almond blooms. In fact, cover crops and hedge rows provide improved nutrition for bees and other pollinators, increasing colony strength. Planting forage can provide a number of benefits for soil quality. The Honey Bee Best Management Practices PDF (above) now includes information on the benefits of planting forage on (pages 16-17).

Honey Bee Forage Seed Providers:

1. Project Apis m.

2. Pollinator Partnership Ecoregional Planting Guides

3. Xerces Society Seed Mixes

Bee Where Program.

Bringing beekeepers and pesticide applicators together to share best practices by tracking and safeguarding hive locations across California using innovative mapping tools.

Go to BeeWhere

Supporting Honey Bee Health.

Almonds rely on honey bees for pollination, and the California almond community recognizes the essential role bees play in sustaining the global food supply. Since 1995, the Almond Board of California has invested more money in research on the health of honey bees than any other U.S. commodity, including:

• Improving honey bee nutrition

• Effective management of bee pests and diseases

• Improving honey bee breeding stock

• Assessing impacts of pesticides used in almonds

• Impact of crop protection products on bee health

The results of this research are being used to improve best management practices for both growers and beekeepers.

The Almond Board, in collaboration with Project Apis m., USDA, the University of California, beekeeper organizations and other groups, has supported and continues to support research to develop best management practices in these areas for growers and beekeepers alike. A key goal is to ensure almond orchards continue to be a good, safe place for honey bees to forage — a place that keeps them healthy and where hives increase in size.