Jerry Hayes, Assistant Chief, Bureau of Plant and Apiary
Inspection,
Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of
Agriculture, Gainesville, Florida:
This is the time of year when almond bloom is about to take place and
hundreds of thousands of colonies are brought in to pollinate that
crop. The reports that I have gotten from beekeepers is that about 30%
of the healthy colonies that have gone to California - for this 2010
almond pollination to fulfill pollination contracts - have died in two
or three weeks.
