A Partnership Designed By Nature

We’ve been leading bee health research efforts since 1995, so farmers can confidently provide safe and welcoming habitats on their farms. 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 actively working with US beekeepers and independent researchers to solve the challenges pollinators face because we know by partnering together, we can find real solutions. Because without bees, there would be no almonds.

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 fertilised 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:

• Almond orchards provide honey bees with their first natural food source of the year.
• 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 require¹.
• Almond blossom nectar contains a naturally occurring compound, amygdalin, which reduces the viruses and gut parasites that attack bees².
• Honey bee hives routinely leave stronger after visiting during almond bloom.
• Beekeepers can then split many of the hives to grow their apiaries.

Bee-friendly orchards.

The California almond community launched a five-point Pollinator Protection Plan in 2020 outlining initiatives that further bolster pollinator health. Created and funded by ABC, as a result, the Bee+ Scholarship programme 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.

Working with Project Apis m., international nonprofit the 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 programme 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.³

Another component of the Bee+ Scholarship encourages farmer participation in the Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Farming programme. To date, 110,000 acres of almonds have been Bee Friendly certified, for providing diverse forage and habitat for pollinators. This represents 85% of all Bee-Friendly certified US farms.

Promoting biodiversity.

In April 2021, ABC led the development and launch of the California Pollinator Coalition with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and  the Pollinator Partnership. The coalition is made up of a diverse group of agricultural and environmental organisations – 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 towards 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.

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.

Funding more bee health research than any other crop group,⁴ 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.