Almond farmers cope with dwindling bee population In the next
two weeks Paul Betancourt's almond trees will begin to blossom.
“Each individual blossom lasts three days and in that three day
period of its life it needs to be pollinated," said Betancourt.
A very important job that's left up to an increasingly rare
insect. “Almonds are not self pollinating and so we rely on bees
to pollinate from male to female trees," said Betancourt. And
while bee populations have decreased nationwide, almond
production in the valley has increased, driving up the price of
rented bees. "We need every bee we can get. Our almond acreage
is expanding and we need a tremendous number of pollinators,”
said Mueller. Entomologist Shannon Mueller says farmers like
Betancourt will likely see bee prices continue to rise. "Bee
populations go down my costs go up,” said Betancourt. In Fresno
County alone more than 52 million was spent by farmers on bee
pollination in 2011. Making them so valuable that Betancourt
keeps his locked up, worried