Pollen Power

Cool temperatures and honey bees do not a good team make.

Since honey bees don't forage until temperatures hit 50 to 55 degrees, we haven't seen many bees gathering pollen from our nectarine trees.

If you love nectarines, there's a lot to love. California boasts some 29,300 bearing acres of nectarines, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's down slightly from the 30,300 acres tallied in 2009.

Although acreage is down, yields are up. The 2010 crop totaled 8.03 tons, up slightly from the 7.25 tons harvested in 2009.

Meanwhile,  pollen-packin' honey bees turned out in force last Sunday to forage on the pink blossoms of our two nectarine trees. 

Pollen power.