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NARRATOR: Gordon Wardell is a biologist
working for a large almond producer in the US.
Each here it is increasingly difficult for delta
to find enough honey bees to pollinate his crops.
So he's working on his own pollination solution.
GORDON WARDELL: Well, here we have the cocoons
of the blue orchard bees.
These are mostly female cocoons.
And they're fully mature adults inside the cocoons.
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And they develop in the summer, and then they
need 150 days of winter diapause.
And so we give them in the coldroom 150 days
of cold weather, and that coincides almost exactly
with when almond pollination starts.
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Now she's ready to go out and start pollinating.
NARRATOR: Pollination by the blue orchard bee
is still in an experimental stage in agriculture,
but first tests have shown each blue orchard bee visits
50 times as many flowers as a honey bee, a pollination
service that is badly needed.
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