Mostly because of the increase in demand for almonds, the average beekeeper now makes more money through renting colonies for pollination services than through honey sales, Peyton Ferrier reports for Amber Waves, a publishing arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.It wasn't always that way. Beekeepers mostly made their money from honey sales until the early 20th century, but in the 1910s began renting colonies to farmers to increase yields of melons, orchard fruits, and other crops. Almonds are paying so well nowadays because pollination service fees for almonds doubled around 2004, rising with increased--and denser--almond tree planting to match the nation's increased demand.
In 2016, almonds accounted for 82 percent of all U.S. expenditures on pollination services. Most almond orchards are in California's Central Valley region. "As the crop’s demand for pollination services has outstripped local supply, farmers have paid high fees to bring in colonies from cross-country distances for the February bloom. At 5 percent, the pollination services share of all farm costs is far higher for almonds than for most other crops (about 1 percent)," Ferrier reports.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2zxVX90 Pollination services exceed honey for beekeeper revenue - Entrepreneur Generations
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