California Honey Bee Sampling 2010 Gigapan #11 by Dennis vanEngelsdorp

This Gigapan was taken just before we left this area to break for lunch. We didn't actually work in this apiary but passed by it while we were looking for other hives.

I was wondering how many hives were in this yard? I haven't counted them yet but if anyone else wants to give it a shot it may help to know that the hives were placed on four-way pallets (=four hives to a pallet).

Often times it can be difficult to find the areas where beekeepers set their bees down. Some times they are dropped in sucluded apiaries, other times they are in almond orchards, and other times they can be in huge holding yards right off the highway. Each of these situations presents its own set of difficulties. Finding a secluded apiary can prove difficult for two main reasons: #1 we generally do these surveys in places that are new to us and #2 beekeeper directions are in a category all their own....hahaha! Finding 20 hives in an almond orchard that covers thousands of acres and looks identical in almost every way, can also be an exercise in patience. Some times we drive the rows of the orchards one by one until we find all the hives we are looking for. You might thinking finding an apiary right off of a major highway would be easy and it is. In this case finding the apiary wasn't that hard but when you get there and realize that there are thousands of colonies in the holding yard you end up driving and walking circles around a lot of them before you find the ones your looking for.