When people think of beekeepers, they think of honey and bee stings and ill-fitting suits. For smaller scale beekeepers, or hobbyists, this is generally the whole picture of what they do; but for major bee keepers who make their living from beekeeping, there is a lot more that goes on.

There are many interconnected reasons why bee (honey and local) are declining, and while this has many consequences for the greater environment, it also means losses for the agricultural industry in produce from flowering plants. To add to that, bees generally do not like living in monocultural areas, meaning they would rather live in an undeveloped area with many kinds of flowering plants than they would on a farm where only one or two plants are grown. Beekeepers are paid to truck there bees into these low pollinator areas to ensure better pollination and fruit production.

This is certainly something smaller local beekeepers can get in on, establishing colonies near smaller farms or agricultural gardens, but on the larger scale pollination services are more than just a way for beekeepers to try and break even on their hobby.

By far the greatest pollination migration in the world starts the Winter before the season itself (which happens in the late Spring). Colonies of honey bees are shipped in trucks across the United States, largely from the midwest like the Dakotas, but also from the north east, and from the deep south, between Texas and Florida. Bees are even sent in from Canada! All of these bees go to the same place: California.

California has more than one million acres of almond trees, which each require great amounts of pollination for each almond to seed and develop properly. If you eat an almond or consume an almond byproduct, chances are it was grown in California. As of 2014, 84% of the world’s almonds were produced there. Last year, in 2017, 1.7 million colonies were shipped there, and this number is only expected to grow as the number of trees increases as well. Generally, the agreements are that the beekeepers bring their bees and leave them for the blooming season; after that many of them will return home or go on a pollination road trip across the south of the United States, before once again returning home or to California to prepare for the next year.

Beekeepers get paid to move the bees around and they get to keep the honey; since the bees are being forced onto lands where only one kind of plant is grown, they can sell the honey as “almond honey,” or whatever else the bees pollinate exclusively.

There are many problems associated with this service, however, the least of which is the fear of a truck carrying colonies and colonies of bees tipping over and setting loose a bunch of agitated stingers. Moving the bees short or even long distances doesn’t itself disrupt them; they can easily reorient themselves to the new environment and, so long as there is sufficient food, they can go out and produce just the same. However, keeping bees on a truck and moving them around all year long, especially if they are prevented from hibernating in the Winter (as is done in some of the warmer climates like Florida to keep business year round) does stress the bees out and can make them more aggressive and have shorter life spans.

Beekeepers will often also feed their bees corn syrup or other odd honey replacements rather than their own honey, which is often nutritionally inferior. Speaking of which, you probably wouldn’t like having to eat exclusively almonds for your whole life, and in a similar vein neither do bees! The nutrition percentages of pollen and nectar from flowers (which bees use to make beebread and honey, respectively) is different, and they know which ones are better for the hive at any given time. Their own honey might not be good for them when they are forced to collect from a single plant over such a long time.

What can be done about this? At the moment, there isn’t much. The almonds in California and tangerines in Florida need bees to be shipped in, but one of the reasons for that is because the local bees aren’t thriving thanks to pesticides and other ecological pressures. Using honey bees to pollinate these crops is like taking a multivitamin to correct a diet of only pizza––it doesn’t address the real problem and only works in the short run.