"You're asking a lot of questions," Alden said as they reached the end of the final row.
"I don't know enough yet to give you a useful answer."
"That's refreshing. Most people want to charge me for one before they know what the question is."
Caleb smiled, then admitted that he was hoping to provide pollination services eventually but needed Walt's help judging how many colonies would be strong enough to move. Alden told him he wasn't asking for a guarantee of a bumper crop, only a reliable supply of bees during the brief window when the blossoms needed them. He agreed to speak with Walt and the extension specialist before either of them put a number on a contract.
The conversation made Caleb realize that moving bees to an orchard was more complicated than delivering them in a truck. He would have to plan access, avoid placing colonies where workers or visitors would cross flight paths, provide water, think about weather, coordinate with the grower about pesticide applications and ensure the bees remained healthy enough to return home. The colonies would have value to an orchard only if they were ready at the right time, not simply because their boxes had been counted in August. He wrote down these considerations that evening and underlined one sentence twice: THE TREES DO NOT WAIT FOR US.
When he brought the plan to Walt, the older man listened with growing interest. He had once rented hives for pollination work on farms farther south and knew both the opportunity and the difficulty. The idea of keeping colonies year-round in a valley where growers had gradually lost local beekeepers made sense to him. But he warned that taking on clients introduced promises that bees could not always keep.
"You'll have springs when a colony comes out strong and springs when it barely crawls out alive," Walt said. "You'll have cold bloom weather when bees won't fly much, no matter how perfect the boxes are. And you'll have growers who want a hive to fix what frost already ruined. You'll need to tell the truth even when it costs you a contract."
Caleb asked whether Walt thought he should stop trying to expand. Walt shook his head and gave him a better question to answer: what would be the smallest reliable service Caleb could provide without putting his bees at risk? They worked through a proposed trial for the following spring, contingent on the colonies' condition after winter. Walt suggested that Caleb start with one orchard under a written agreement rather than promise half the county more bees than he could manage.