Bees, and the Sanctity of Seedless Mandarin Oranges

The Winter Solstice came and went this year with less fanfare than that earthly positional event should get, I think. One of my goals in life is to be at Stonehenge for both the Winter and Summer events – just because.

“Just gone”, is the symptom he described, which is the easiest to measure. Others in several states are experiencing the same thing ... some again, some for the first time.

The migration of thousands of colonies from everywhere east of California to the almond orchards has begun and right now everyone’s holding their breath. But to be honest the bees heading to California right now seem to be in pretty good shape because after three years of surprises both beekeepers and growers are really paying attention to colony health. This year bees are being fed lots and lots of good food, treated for both the major and minor pests and diseases and being handled in a kinder, gentler manner. But there’s still time for everything to go wrong, again.

Meanwhile the range war between seedless mandarin growers and beekeepers held its first Peacekeeping meeting in California in December. Seedless mandarin growers hate bees that transfer pollen from nearby orange trees to their trees, resulting in ... gosh, seeds. Go figure.

They don’t want seeds in their seedless mandarins because the value of seedy mandarins is much less than the value of seedless mandarins. The bees bring pollen from nearby orange trees while on foraging missions. You’d think the growers would have figured that out before they planted them so close together but for a variety of reasons it seems they didn’t.

And the beekeepers, are they at fault? Well, bees have been foraging in these citrus groves for years (years before the seedless, now seedy mandarins were planted), building up on good citrus pollen and nectar preparing for the almond blossoms to be and making orange blossom honey for their keepers.

The mandarin growers want the bees gone. Beekeepers, and not surprisingly almond growers, don’t. No shots have been fired yet but attorneys have joined the fray so no one knows what will happen next.

Mandarins have been a diversion but CCD is still on the front burner from the honey bee scientist’s perspective because they’re still waiting for their money. But it’s moved to a middle burner for beekeepers and almond growers – waiting to see.