A little over four years ago, BeeHero entered the almond market with technology for improving pollination by giving beekeepers better capability for preserving bee health. Last year, in a dramatic escalation in the use of new technology, the company was servicing more than 100,000 acres of California almonds, according to Ze’ev Barylka, chief sales and marketing officer for the company.

Likewise, four years ago, the Israeli company Edete brought new technology for improving pollination to California pistachios. Last year, already servicing thousands of acres, the company didn’t have enough machines to meet demand. And similarly, Beewise, a company that provides growers and beekeepers hives that use artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology to improve bee health, is planning to double the number of hives available to California almond growers next season.

“We have a fleet of 1,000 BeeHomes, and each of those holds up to 10 colonies, and we’re manufacturing new homes all the time,” said Tai Nicolopoulos, vice president of marketing for Beewise.

As growers and beekeepers prepare for the 2025 pollination season, it has become clear that the use of advanced pollination technology is gaining a foothold in California tree nuts.

Edete

Edete, which is building up its fleet to meet increased demand, offers growers an opportunity to gain control of a part of production that traditionally has been left up to nature, according to Ori Inbar, chairman and cofounder of the company.

“In modern agriculture, growers are tending to almost every aspect of production, from the genetics of the trees to the soil, to irrigation and fertilization, pest control and very sophisticated harvest equipment,” Inbar said. “But when it comes to the very crucial task of pollination, it is left entirely to nature. You hope the male trees will bloom at the same time and the wind will be favorable and other factors will fall into place. And some years it works well, and some years it doesn’t work so well.

“We felt there was a way of introducing technology into the process to try to create a more sustainable, more predictable method for pollination that allows the growers to actually have more control over it,” Inbar said.

In Edete’s system, pollen is harvested from California pistachio orchards, stored and then dispersed through sophisticated tow-behind equipment that distributes the pollen where and when it is needed, mimicking natural wind pollination.

“We have a bank of pollen that we preserve, and we maintain its quality and reliability,” Inbar said. “We have very strict quality control to make sure the pollen we are dispersing is actually vital and fertile.”

The company’s distribution system can disperse the pollen in its pure form and in precise amounts, Inbar said, and the system uses an electrostatic charge to help deliver the pollen directly to the flowers.

“Another key success factor is the ability to pollinate in the exact timing,” Inbar said, noting the company’s botanic and AI team has developed a method to decide on the best time to pollinate each plot.

Since its introduction, California growers who use the system have seen a typical yield increase of 15% to 30%, according to Inbar.

The company, which is led by cofounder and CEO Eylam Ran, today is servicing strictly pistachios, but eventually plans to branch into other crops, including almonds.

Beewise

Beewise, which was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., takes a different approach to improving pollination, in its case, concentrating on bee health. The company’s hive, called BeeHome, comes with insulation and ventilation to help bees thermoregulate and cameras that allow beekeepers and growers to remotely inspect colonies. The BeeHome also will alert beekeepers to issues and to remedy issues in real time with a robotic arm through use of artificial intelligence.

“We have beekeepers who like to look at scans themselves and they’ll take action in a manual way from our app, however the AI can take a number of actions on its own,” Nicolopoulos said.

The BeeHome also can remotely close hive entrances when a pesticide application is scheduled, can kill Varroa mites with a chemical-free heat treatment and perform other functions, such as delivering supplemental feeding and medication for bees when needed.

The company, which began working in almonds in 2021, works with beekeepers and charges growers market rate to use the hives. To date, Nicolopoulos said, beekeepers who use the technology are reporting fewer colony losses and less labor costs, and growers are reporting yield improvements.

“Of course, there is a lot that goes into yields other than just pollination, but they’re doing their own yield studies as well as seeing great activity at hive entrances,” Nicolopoulos said. “And they’re coming back to us.”

BeeHero

Like Beewise, BeeHero, from Del Rey, Calif., also concentrates on improving bee performance through better bee health.

In its system, BeeHero uses in-hive sensors, enabled by wireless system-on-chip and Bluetooth modules, that enable beekeepers and growers to monitor hives. The sensors can monitor temperature, humidity, bee activity and acoustics, which can then be correlated with observed hive activity to identify if there are issues that need addressing.

Through its remote monitoring system BeeHero enables beekeepers to manage 10s of thousands of hives at multiple locations, according to Barylka. And, Barylka said, the system provides real-time information on when action is needed, which is reducing colony losses, improving hive strength and cutting back on labor, given beekeepers check hives only when needed.

The system also has a dramatic effect on pollination, Barylka said. “Our customers get stronger hives, an average of 30% to 40% above industry standard, and they just simply get better pollination,” he said.

BeeHero signs collaboration agreements with beekeepers to use the technology and contracts directly with growers, Barylka said.

BeeHero has also recently introduced technology that measures bee visits to flowers through use of in-field sensors that collect real-time data on bee activity and environmental conditions. “We have isolated the acoustic signature of bees, and we place these microphones very close to the flower and we can learn how often bees visit the flowers,” Barylka said.

The technology, Pollination Insight Platform, earned recognition by Time magazine as one of the best inventions of 2024. Among other benefits, the technology enables growers to isolate where in an orchard pollination may be lacking, Barylka said.

Other technologies, such as APIS Bloom, a specialized pheromone and lure application that enhances pollination by attracting honeybees to flowering plants and encouraging them to visit longer, is also available to California tree nut growers. And while it may be too early to declare the advancements in pollination technology an unmitigated success, it is becoming clear they are gaining a foothold in California tree nuts.

And bees, beekeepers and growers may be better off because of it.