almond pollination company, the bees

Becoming a major new force in the pollination
of almonds in California

The bee we use is a native American species, the Blue Orchard Bee or BOB to its friends.

Boffins know it as Osmia lignaria and it is a solitary species. That is, it is non-social, each nest being the work of a single female working alone.

It nests in pre-existing cavities such as beetle borings in dead wood or hollow plant stems.

We have developed a patented nesting system which enables us to mass-rear these bees and time their emergence to coincide with the flowering of target crops. BOB's appear in early spring, so are ideally suited to be managed pollinators of spring-flowering orchard crops such as almonds.


O. lignaria mating pair at almond	© O. lignaria mating pair at almond	© O. lignaria mating pair at almond