Buzz Biz

The Dalles, Ore., April 2, 2025 — Saul Valdivia, 25, of The Dalles was hard at it last week preparing his pickup for a big hive haul.

He said he was prepping on Kelly Avenue in The Dalles as there were 400 hives for he and his brother to get out to local orchards to ensure a red dawn this June when it’s an all-out Cherry Jamboree.

Cherries take between one and two hives per acre to pollinate the flowers as bees transfer pollen from a fruit tree's anther (male part) to its stigma (female part) by brushing against the anthers, picking up pollen, and then inadvertently transferring it to the stigma of another flower while searching for nectar.

Few bees will fly at temperatures below 55°F. Honeybees don’t forage in full force until temperatures are above 65°F and winds are less than 10 miles per hour, according to Washington State University research.

Thank goodness, the National Weather Service is calling for temps in the high 60s in The Dalles on Friday, Saturday and Sunday — April 4-6.

I spotted a poor little honey bee standing on my concrete driveway this morning - 45 degrees. He was pretty lethargic.

Did you know, Bees are a lot like people in that they specialize in their work.

The number of effective pollinators accomplishing pollination from a colony of honey bees is rather small. The actual force from a colony of 20,000 bees pollinating in Red Delicious apples, for example, is roughly 4,000, the WSU article stated. The remaining 16,000 bees in a colony likely perform other essential tasks within the hive, including caring for the brood, cleaning, building comb, and guarding the hive.

Wasco County is home to some 8,000 acres of cherry trees, according to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service county profile for Wasco County. It is the leading producer of sweet cherries in the state. 

Hood River County has some 1,500 acres of cherry trees in their mix of 15,000 acres of fruit trees.