In the spring, brightly colored boxes of bees begin to show up in fields along Interstate 90 in Mineral County.

Many of these bees are returning from a journey that took them to California, Oregon and Washington.

Montana is the second-largest honey producer in the nation, ranked behind number one, North Dakota. Honey also ranks as Montana’s tenth most valuable crop—in which beekeepers harvest nearly 15 million pounds of honey. A harvest worth more than $31 million in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Many of the bees spend their winter in California, which produces around 82 percent of the world’s almonds or around 1.85 billion pounds annually, with crops worth around $2.5 billion dollars. The almonds have a short bloom and need bees to pollinate.

Lots of bees are needed in order to produce such large crops and almond industry growers are willing to pay beekeepers as much as $175 per hive to pollinate their orchards during the blooming season from February through March.

More than 10 percent of the estimated 1.6 million hives sent to California each year come from Montana, forming a beginning and end point for billions of bees transported across thousands of miles.

The route some of the bees take after their journey to California, is back up through Washington and Oregon to pollinate apples, pears and apricots.

By mid-June most of the honey bees have returned to Montana, where they regroup and gather their energy. These bees feast on weeds and– wildflowers for several months before being loaded up and once again shipped to California.