Firman spoke while rain clouds swirled above him. Farmers often greet rain with relief, but growers of almonds and other flowering fruit trees know that rain holds back bee pollination. So does weather that's too cold or too hot. Firman employs from 30 to 60 people who gather pollen. For almond pollen, he uses machines to shake blossoms onto a tarp.
Workers collect plum blossoms by hand.
Blossoms go into a machine that detaches anthers, the blossom components that hold pollen, from the blossoms. Don May, a University of California farm adviser for Fresno County who specializes in vegetables, says farmers import beehives to the Valley mainly for almonds, but bees also help alfalfa, melons and vegetable seed stocks among other crops. With the need for bees already high, further infiltration of Africanized bees could make pollination woes worse. It make a big difference. Borderline beekeepers may say the heck with it.