1.6 billion bees - 120 semi-trailer loads - required urgently or we don't eat almonds.
Many of the trees border the Murray Valley Highway from Boundary Bend to Robinvale, probably my favourite drive ever; Murray River to one side, seemingly endless almond groves to the other. Further north the almonds give way to red soil and orange trees and beyond that, Mildura; and then nothing but vast emptiness and interstate trucks.
"We have just a two-week window to get the hives and have them in place when the trees bloom next month," he said yesterday.The numbers are staggering: 52,000 hives, each containing 30,000 bees; to pollinate 12,000 almond trees grown by 7,000 growers producing a $100 million crop.
Many of the trees border the Murray Valley Highway from Boundary Bend to Robinvale, probably my favourite drive ever; Murray River to one side, seemingly endless almond groves to the other. Further north the almonds give way to red soil and orange trees and beyond that, Mildura; and then nothing but vast emptiness and interstate trucks.
This whole bee problem has me worried. Bees are dying out all over the world.
ReplyDeleteMore here: http://www.saveourbees.org.uk/why-bees-dying.asp
Interesting, Kimbofo. I'm doing my bit by planting flowering species (amidst an epidemic of polished rocks, water features and cordyline). There were bees all over my winter-flowering viburnum this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder why our summer outdoor eveningss are being ruined by European wasps.