The All Important Almond Season with Dr. Brittney Goodrich (S4, E21)

We welcome back Dr. Brittney Goodrich, Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist at the University of California, Davis. Brittney joined us originally on October 5, 2020 to talk about her research on the importance of Almond Pollination contracts. Today, she joins us to discuss just how the success (or lack thereof) of the almond pollination season impacts the rest of the nation’s beekeeping for the year.

Here is a truth: No matter how large or small your operation is this year, almond pollination in California is going to have some effect on how your season goes.

Almond pollination uses about 90% of available honey bee colonies each spring, and many, many of those colonies are used later for queen production, package shaking, nuc and split production and make in honey later in the season.

Almond pollination affects colonies in orchards in many ways. Primarily - colony health. Almond pollen is a rich source of food for these bees, so that helps, but because 90% of US bees are in just a few counties of California, every colony out there has a good chance of catching whatever any colony within flight range has . Almond season has the real potential to become a superspreader event.

Almond pollination WILL affect your beekeeping next season. Be as ready as you can for all that can happen.

Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: 

• Brittney's Website with useful almond research information - http://www.brittneygoodrich.com/
  
• Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com

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This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! 

We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com

Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com

We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for
your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum.

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Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott

Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC