Almond orchards in bloom, Sacramento Valley, California

© Anthony Dunn/Alam

Blooms in the valley. A tale of almonds and bees

Every February in California, the almond trees bloom, sparking a massive migration of commercial beekeepers to America’s ‘Golden State.’ With box hives stacked high onto semi-truck trailers, they transport their honeybee colonies to almond orchards in the Sacramento and San Joaquin areas of California’ Central Valley, renting the little workers out to farmers. In recent decades, this practice has grown to become the largest managed pollination effort in the world, sometimes called the ‘Super Bowl of beekeeping.’