Drought keeps bees from producing honey

As the California drought continues, the agricultural industry has been greatly impacted. Because so few crops are available for bees to pollinate, they aren’t producing as much honey as they normally do. And it leaves beekeepers in the red financially.

“In the drought years we just don’t make as much honey,” Gene Brandi, a Los Banos beekeeper, told NPR. “I mean, we’re very thankful that we have places like this, where the bees have made some honey this summer.”

To keep the bees from starving, beekeepers are feeding their colonies processed food, made of pollen and oil. Not only is this costly for the beekeeper, but it isn’t as nutritious for the colonies.

For the health of the bees, beekeepers are moving them to states like Montana, where the drought hasn’t had such a drastic impact. Farmers and beekeepers are now wondering how the bees will pollinate the crops in the Central Valley come springtime.