Pollinator Health

Nature’s Perfect Duo

When almonds trees bloom, bees get their first food source from our orchards’ nutritious pollen. While bees are only with us for two months of the year as they pollinate the crop, we work to support their health for all twelve.

We’ve been leading bee health research efforts since 1995, so farmers can confidently provide safe habitats that allow them to leave stronger to pollinate other crops. In collaboration with partners beyond our industry, our Honey Bee Best Management Practices serve as a guide to all of agriculture for protecting pollinator health on-farm.

What’s more, we’re working with others to solve the complex set of challenges bees’ face because we know by partnering together, we can find real solutions. Because without bees, there would be no almonds.

Almond Trees need cross-pollination, and honey bees help move pollen from tree to tree, setting the crop.

Bee Hives consistently leave almond orchards stronger than when they came in because with natural occurring compounds like amygdalin, almond pollen is very nutritious to bees and is their first natural food source of the year.^{1, 2}

Bees and Almonds

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Pollination partners.

Between February and March each year, almond tree buds burst into beautiful light pink and white blooms in preparation for pollination. As the trees blossom, honey bees forage for pollen and nectar in the orchard. When the bees move from tree to tree, they pollinate almond blossoms along the way. Each fertilized flower will grow into an almond. After almonds, beekeepers bring their honey bees to different locations across the United States, pollinating more than 90 other crops and making honey.

While bees are essential to growing almonds, the bees benefit too. Almond orchards help strengthen bee hives because:^{1, 2, 3}

Almond orchards provide honey bees with their first natural source of food each spring.
Just like almonds are a nutritious snack for us, almond pollen is very nutritious for honey bees, providing all ten of the amino acids their diets require.
Almond blossom nectar contains a naturally occurring compound, amygdalin, which reduces the viruses and gut parasites that attack bees.
Honey bee hives routinely leave stronger after visiting during almond bloom.
Beekeepers can then split many of the hives to grow their apiaries.

Honey Bee Health by the Numbers

33 percent of our global food production relies on pollinators.
90 U.S. crops pollinated by commercial honey bees each year.
125+ Almond Board-funded honey bee health research projects to date.
1995: The year we created the Honey Bee Health Taskforce to specifically to specifically fund research to improve bee health.

Committed to health.

A variety of factors have led to a widely documented and concerning decline in honey bee health, including activities associated with both beekeeping and crop production, putting at risk many of the foods we count on for a stable, nutritious food supply. While the total number of honey bee hives in the U.S. has remained steady for the past 20 years,⁴ beekeepers experience significant in-season hive losses and must work hard to keep their hives healthy.

That’s why we’ve been leading bee health research efforts since 1995, working with leading universities, researchers and non-profits to solve the challenges bees face. While those are complex – varroa mites, other pests and diseases, lack of floral resources, limited genetic diversity and pesticide exposure – we know by partnering together we can find real solution.

FACTORS IMPACTING HONEY BEES	WHAT WE'RE DOING
VARROA MITES	Investigating treatment options and beekeeper guidance for treating this devastating pest.
OTHER PESTS AND DISEASES	Kickstarting Tech Transfer Teams who work with beekeepers to monitor hives and advise on pest and disease treatment.
LACK OF GENETIC DIVERSITY	Funding researchers to bring new, foreign genetic material into the U.S. and making it available to beekeepers for improving breeding stock.
PESTICIDE EXPOSURE	Understanding if pest control materials needed to protect the almond crop during pollination impact bees and how to minimize impacts.
LACK OF FORAGE AND NUTRITION	Understanding the benefits and management practices for supplemental bee forage and supporting the distribution of blooming plant seed.

Funding more bee health research than any other crop group,⁵ the California almond community’s support of more than 125 research projects helps farmer confidently provide pollinators with safe habitats in their orchards.

Based on that research and in collaboration with universities, government agencies, and non-profits, our Honey Bee Best Management Practices (BMPs) serve as a guide to all of agriculture for protecting pollinator health on-farm. These guidelines provide recommendations ranging from making the orchard a safe and welcoming place for honey bees to how to treat for pests and disease without harming bees.

“ The almond industry has really shown itself to be a leader in pollinator health. From launching the California Pollinator Coalition to being recognized with the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign’s Business for Bees Sustainability Award, almond farmers are doing the work on the ground too.

Laurie Davies Adams, President and CEO, Pollinator Partnership

Promoting biodiversity.

Building on these efforts, the California almond community launched a five-point Pollinator Protection Plan in 2020 outlining initiatives underway that further bolster pollinator health. Created and funded by ABC as a result, the new Bee+ Scholarship program provides grants to farmers helping to offset costs associated with planting blooming cover crops, an important source of supplemental nutrition for honey bees and habitat for all pollinators.

In April 2021, ABC led the development and launch of the California Pollinator Coalition with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and international nonprofit Pollinator Partnership. The coalition is made up of a diverse group of agricultural and environmental organizations – representing the large majority of California’s crop and range land – with the shared goal of providing enhanced habitat for pollinators. The Coalition and its members have pledged to increase habitat for pollinators on working lands as well as promote research and track its progress toward healthy and abundant habitats.

While just beginning its work, the Coalition is continuing to recruit partners who understand the urgency and share the common goal of supporting both the health of pollinators and agriculture.

Bee-friendly orchards.

Working with Project Apis m., Pollinator Partnership and others, the Almond Board encourages almond farmers to plant pollinator habitat near or within their orchards as additional food sources for honey bees before and after almond bloom. These blooming cover crops support honey bee health and provide food sources for native pollinators. What’s more, they can also improve carbon sequestration, soil health, water infiltration and more.

Continued in 2021, ABC distributed another 100 farmer scholarships offsetting the cost of wildflower seeds through Project Apis m.’s Seeds for Bees program and Bee Friendly Farming certification through the Pollinator Partnership. In total this has enabled 200 farms to improve local habitats and biodiversity.

Since its inception in 2013, Seeds for Bees has helped almond farmers add pollinator habitat to more than 95,000 acres of almond orchards.⁶

Another component of the Bee+ Scholarship encourages farmer participation in Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Farming program. To date, 110,000 acres of almonds have been Bee Friendly certified, meaning farmers are actively protecting pollinator populations by implementing positive, incremental changes on-farm.

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