The concern is that the prime cross pollination time will be lost with the bad weather. St. Gilles is a large fruit growing region, but marked by rather small landholdings of independent land owners. Apricot and peach seemed to prevail here, but I also saw apples. Most apricots were blooming, but the peaches and apples had yet to blossom. I was informed the almond-growing region was more to the west.
Pollen is placed into a special contraption at the hive entrance.
As the bees exit, pollen is dusted onto their bodies which then is distributed in the field. Much can go wrong with apricot pollination it seems, whether it be wind, rain or cold. We put colonies into the blocks of plants and distributed them around so that more than four at one location was unusual. We distributed our colonies by hand, sometimes to fairly isolated parts of the orchards. In one case, two colonies were piled onto a hand cart and wheeled down an embankment about 100 yards.