What is migratory beekeeping?
Short answerTrue
Moving colonies to where they are needed — either to a honey flow the home apiary cannot reach, or to a crop whose grower is paying for pollination. The second reason now drives the largest operations.
Two motives, opposite economics
Chasing a honey flow is the older reason: move to heather, orange blossom or lime and harvest a crop, often a monofloral one worth more than a blend. The beekeeper sells honey.
Pollination inverts it. The grower pays for colonies to arrive for the bloom, honey is incidental, and the beekeeper is selling a service under contract — typically specifying colony strength, because a weak colony forages less and strength is what is actually being bought.
How it is done
Colonies are strapped to pallets and moved at night or in cool weather when the flying bees are home, by flatbed lorry, sometimes across hundreds or thousands of kilometres and across borders subject to inspection. The United States almond bloom is the largest single instance, drawing colonies from across the country into California for a few weeks.
Sources
- Honey (annual report) — United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service · Government statistics
- Almond industry pollination and acreage reporting — Almond Board of California · Industry body
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
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