Off to Almonds!

And just like that, almond pollination season has arrived in central California. We started moving our bees out of the almond orchards over the weekend, and we took a few photos just as it was beginning bloom:

Almonds in peak bloom last for just a few days, and then drop their blossoms. Harvest won’t come until fall. Now that the bees are on their way back to the holding yards, requeening, splitting, and shaking season takes off in earnest. This coming Sunday, the first queen cells will go out! About wo months later, all colonies will be as ready as they’re going to be for honey production in California, and all critters great and small will come back home.