Napa Valley Bee Company

And while your at it...

Check this out:

A little pixelated, but not bad for starters...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qrIafNZRfg

 

A still photo from just before the movie was made.

A day in the week of a Napa beekeeper - Day II

Bee day II - 3/27/10

* Met with John early to discuss the bees I'm keeping at his Carneros place. We mostly talked about art and drank coffee while Davis ransacked their toy cabinet. However, I did give him some of the honey from the bees that is absolutely amazing. On the Bonick Family Farm the bees first get eucalyptus in early February, then the organic Asian pears come into bloom, and lastly the blackberry bloom under the eucalyptus canopy -- a feast! 

* Met with Roger to look into the hives I am managing for him. One of his hives kind of circled the drain this winter so I married a colony of mine from a fan division I did last week. The teak hives look gorgeous, even after going through a wet winter. The observation hive is also just busting -- it's wonderful to be able to see into the life of the bees without opening the lid. I love that hive!

* Got a call from my sister-in-law KT. She lives in Oakland and was having an early Easter party when a swarm arrived. It appears the bees are moving into a PG&E box on the ground,,, how random is that? Curious, because both my wife and son were at the party too. I'm not assuming the bees knew that and were there looking for me..

* While at Roger's I got a call from a lady named Anette who was doing the Good Sam bee thing and looking after a swarm across town. I guess she called Luke who refereed me. Super excited because I have been watching the oak trees this swarm came from for about 5 years now. Patience will be rewarded, or...something like that...!

*  I got a call from Susan, her bees swarmed earlier today. I went by her place thinking we would dive into her colony and harvest some of the queen cells but got there a little late. Plus, her colony is so monsterous we'd probably be at it for hours. So we went for a walk around her block and happened to find an abandoned house with a feral colony living in the walls.

Hew-weee! Now that's some honey.

Johnny checking out his yum yum - Oh, incidentally, the back lit  honey photo was MY idea.

 

Crazy mustard out there at the Carneros apiary.

 

Edward Emery's hive drawing after a winter.

Roger's teak hives

Roger's bees. You don't see many in this image but they're loaded with varroa

My favorite - the observation hive

I love how the rusted metal compliments the wood

 

and you can see inside...

Here is the picture KT sent me of the swarm that interrupted her Easter party. My guess is they are going in the small hole of that cover. But what do I know? I'm no scout bee.

My car - Annette's bike

The Bees left this hole in the oak tree.

The bees ended up on this sign where the road splits on Trower about 15' away from their mother hive.

 

 They looked like this when I left.

Annette is a sweet as honey, but I'm not getting her shirt..?

Forest and Annette

 

Me and Susan in her gazing ball

 

Susan's monster hive

 

The abandon building with the bees

 

Perfect bee house

A day in the week of a Napa beekeeper - Day I

 

3/26/10

Okay, here's the deal. My intention was to chronicle each day's beekeeping adventure, but here I am 3 days later. So, I'm not getting off to a great start since I still haven't posted from yesterday-- oops, make that two days ago.  Working in flashback, here's what's going on..

* Met with Michael after dropping our kids at the Waldy School --  discussed trading bee work in exchange for Davis going to Spring and Summer camp at Connolly (flash forward to today when he actually was at the camp, when he got in trouble one time during the day and my wife was late for pickup -- good exchange). 

* Received a call from Anita on White Hall lane about a swarm, her husband Dave was a great help.

* Went by a "trap out" I am working on, also on White Hall Lane in Saint Helena.

* Cleaned out the bee stuff in the back of my truck.

* Hived the swarm from White Hall lane.

* Met  Nate regarding bees he has had on the property he manages. The bees have been there roughly 6 years now. They look really good considering they have not been managed in years. The weird thing is I pulled out the monitoring tray and there was drawn comb and nectar on the bottom. The hive stands are for sided wooden boxes on end, so it would make the perfect place for a second colony to live. Curious, more later...

 

Football sized swarm in an olive tree on White Hall Lane,  Saint Helena

TOUCH DOWN!

As a reference, I put football sized swarms on three frames. I offer some drawn comb. I do my best not to offer swarms honey and pollen unless I absolutely have to, not to say that you can't spread disease from sharing just drawn comb. I'm sure there are pathogens bees can pick-up from sharing any part of the hive that is sanitized by heat. I know in the last post I was going on and on about the "goodies" I offered the storm swarm but sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures. The two extra frames in the above picture are plastic foundation being used as follower boards. Not only is the hive body beat-up, but I'm needing followers too. Hey! It's all I had around alright?..

I cut and removed the entire limb the swarm was hanging on and lowered them in a 5 gallon bucket perfed with 1/16 holes. I easily slid the entire colony and the olive branches out of the bucket into the hive.

I added an empty deep on top of the bees giving them the space and privacy to get started on their wax production.

About 7 hours later the bees shifted to the far right side of the hive -- most likely the side the queen decided to go towards. Tomorrow I'll go in and gently move the bees to the center. So much for my theory that bees will automatically jump on drawn comb. 

In this "trap out" we are trying to re-route the bees from coming around the post. Their hive is behind the pole occupying the space between two interior walls. The owner, Tom, has made a plywood cover that will act as a hallway for the bees to go an extra 4' towards a hole closer to the end of the porch.

Steel wool helps to fill the space around the pole and the plywood. Think of the steel wool as our propolis filling the space we don't want the bees to occupy.

The hole the bees will be using as their new hive entrance. I may even end up running a piece of PVC from the hole to route the bees even further around the corner.

 Cleaning out the back of my truck meant taking my bike out. Check out my rack...

More later on our zero emission honey bee tree removal last week.

Nate and Davis hangin' by his hive. You can see how a swarm might move under the existing hive, maybe?..

Check out this salamander we caught by Nate's bees. Gorgeous but slimy, Davis loved it.

pollen callin'

Just goes to show that when varied pollen sources call, the bees listen. Eric Mussen was all up on that theory ages ago.

Read this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8467746.stm

Then read Randy Oliver's Fat Bee articles:

http://www.scientificbeekeeping.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=59

Makes sense to me........

Pollen detail

Pollen full frame

Pollen in new wax

Picking it up

Bringing it in

Varied pollen

Microscopic pollen

Queen on pollen?  She has no business out there....

Michael Pollan - My new hero.

Pollen source - In my area Black Berry is one the last pollen sources of the year , and the saving grace for our bees. In years past Black Berry has gotten us out of many a sticky sitch during severe nectar/pollen dearths. It's very easily identified by the gray nondescript color.

Wax moth want that pollen too, everyone needs a little protein.

Pollen, amongst other things, on a monitoring tray.

A lot of beekeepers I know, some I don't know, and a few I don't want to know

My son Davis when he was a wee beekeeper.

My mom after she had been stung up pretty badly the day before, now she always wears her veil.

I don't always wear a veil.....zionks!

Jason Beeman

Billy G

Some kid

Keith

Turtle Berg

Serge Labesque with my old school anolog camera.

Kenny with a hankering hunk of comb.

Andy

Some guy with a lot of bees flying around him, one headed right for his eye.

Courtney from LMR

Peter White

Les gave his bees to Robert

Shannon Kelly

Brother Adam seems like a pretty amazing guy. A little nutty and hard to understand in his video, but did volumes for bee breeders around the world. The Buckfast bee appears to be well adapted to Freemark Abbey, not sure we need them around here but if inclined I think you can get them from Beeweaver in Taxas. But I woudn't..

Louise

Wayne

Scott's son

Ralph Myer

 I liked the idea of being a beekeeper, I'm just not sure I'd like being an albino.

Richard Avadon

Clay Newton

Dorthea Mcfarland- not sure what she's smilling about, I killed two colonies of her bees. Okay, maybe it wasn't me, but I was there checking them both shortly before they died.

Frank

Jackson Graff

Pouty face Lilly Graff

Charles Kennard

Mark Griffin

Laura 

Dude, there's a swarm on you.... get off the phone!

Matthew Barney

Cynthia Perry

Not really a beekeeper - a bee haver. Civil War soldier beehive.

Andrew Miroglio

Pops, brush the bees off and put some cloths on.... PLEASE!

Some city employee helping me capture a swarm.

Check out all his keys, he has more keys than I have bees...

Susan Grosskopf

Susan's beekeeping daughter Kim-may.

Blurry Daniel Townsend from Nickel & Nickel

Craig

Some people can't just say I Do...

Jen Heffner

Eddie and Bethany

Matt and Neil from a class I tought at the Regenerative Design Institute. I don't think they liked me much because I told one of the students they needed to rethink (bee think) the idea of bees being an avenue for honey. The way I see it honey is a byproduct of healthy bees.

Leah Bettenelli

Michael Lauher with a long long neck, but still working the bees despite his susceptibility.

Randy Oliver

Angel from Napa State Hospital

 

Carl from Napa State Hospital

This guy looks like he should be committed to Napa State hospital

  Sean Shawn from Nickel & Nickle

Jimmy who took my class ages ago

Bee my honey - Lyle McCoy from Angwin

Eric in horrific light

Fong in Horrific mid-day sun

Melissa in horrific horrible awful sun light

LL Langstroth - The guy that figured out bee space, my 1/8 inch hero.

Some guy at Silverado Country Club that was helping me with a bee issue they were having.

Phillip Lau from Marin working his top bar hive.

Madeleine Crull from St. Helena  Montessori School.

Lisa Sambora at the College Ave. Apiary.

Luck of the Irish x 2

Now that's a bee beard!

Hector Alverez - The only full time beekeeper I know.

Randy Gularte and Paul Hoff

 

Crazy days biking and bees, sort of....

At first this post may seem slightly off topic and a bit random, but bear with me and I’ll bring it around back to bees. Al-bee-it in a round-about-way but nevertheless we will eventually talk bees.
One of my other passions besides beekeeping is bike riding. Not that sissy stuff you’re thinking with the flashy, tight lycra with all the painful-over-the top logos. Me pimping my package up and down the highways and byways around the valley. No sir, I prefer to spend my time in the great outdoors riding what we call “single track” in the hills around Northern California. That colorful lycra is for those road jockeys, my taste in riding cloths is either a pair of my grandfather’s hand-me down slacks I lopped off just below the knee. Or when I want to ratchet it up a notch I sport my couture beekeeping/bike knickers made by Nan at B Spoke Tailor. Really, these knickers are far too nice for a biking bum like me so I had Nan add a couple extra side pockets for my hive tool and digital camera to use them as beek pants too. Soo nice I’m scared to get them dirty.... I read on Nan’s blog - http://bspoketailor.blogspot.com/ - she’ll even whip your grand pops ol’ get-ups (or those special duds you grabbed at the goodwill) into a pair of amazing bike knickers. When not out working bees and I’m able to get in a quick spin I tend to spend most my saddle time locally at our homie stomping grounds Skyline Park. We are so blessed to have some of the best mountain bike riding in the area right here in our own backyard. Skyline, or as we call it “The S-K-Y”, has hellish climbs, 3 or 4 creek crossings, crazy-fast technical descents, and at least 3 bee trees I know of.
Yeah, it’s true, Skyline is the biking bomb but every Thanksgiving the Skyline Riders pack it in to head west for new trails in Marin. Some call it the Turkey Trot, some call it the Appetite Enhancer, whatever it is we look forward to the ride in Fairfax all year long. I think we clock in at just under 23 miles in about 3 hours. Incredible climbs and epic downhills, and even one DH that shaped the early stages of mountain biking called Repack.

What’s all this got to do with bees you ask yourself?.

*Well, the painfully obvious would be that both Bees and Bikes well,  start with the letter B. 

*Earlier this year I read on Boing Boing A directory of wonderful things about a swarm that landed on a bike seat. 

-http://boingboing.net/2009/08/06/bees-swarm-under-bik.html

2 Wheels, 2000 Bees

Bees swarm under bike seat: the thrilling conclusion
* Burley makes a pretty cool  Honey Bee Bike Trailer for kids
http://www.burley.com/products/child/bee.cfm
*This gal kind of has it going on, I couldn’t navigate her site but it all sounds good to me:
Bees.. check, bikes.. check, beer... check, buzz... got it.
8tracks.com/chrissimelissi/beesbikesbeerbuzz
*Brooks leather bicycle saddles come in a honey color.
This is the one I own:
http://www.brookssaddles.com/en/Shop_ProductPage.aspx?cat=saddles+-+road+%26+mtb&prod=Swift+Chrome
* Mr. HONEY BEE – Z1 is a motorized bicycle which to me just feels wrong.
http://www.grubeeinc.com/USA/4%20Cycle%20Honey%20Bee%20Moped.htm

* These fools deserve to be stung

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbGJPbU7-YY

See, and those are just a few of the many unswerving correlations between bees and bikes. My relationship with bees and bikes is directly linked to my graduate degree in art and overwhelming desire to be on a team. Since none of the local bike shops in town would sponsor me because I break too much of my gear I decided to start my own bicycling team, Team Larves. That’s right, larves... like the undeveloped baby bee. The thing is, I felt there needed to be a strong bond between all the team members. My idea was that we would all consume a handful of drone larvae before each race as our competitive edge. I guess I was the only one who saw the benefits of a fist full of male bee protein before a race because currently I’m the only member. Although I don’t have any jerseys made at this point, I have created a number plate for race day and numerous spoke cards with bee imagery. If you’re interested please feel free to shoot me an e-mail with your biking experience, pre-race strategies, spoke-card ideas, and your post-race decompression protocol.

Catch ya’ on the B side.

Team Larves!

Spoke cards on my single speed - Race day get-up at the Sea Otter 2009

Waggle dance spoke card on my Breezer in Tahoe.

 Queen bee spoke card on my Breezer - Thanksgiving day ride Fairfax 2009

Torpedo spoke card on my Kona - Nice heavy IPA - My friend Tony Auston designed the label. Made from a 6pk side panel - For Real... and remember, you can't spell beer without bees.

Spoke cards on my breezy breezy.

 
Mark Weir passes me while I'm fixing a spoke card flat.

 
Skyline Riders

Spoke cards that never quite made it to the spokes:

BEE CAL

For H20 overdrive with bee wallpaper background.

Full Nelson!

Ride-out to the honey comb hide-out!

Reaking of Teak

For the past few weeks I have been working with Ed Clay Studios and we’re making two of the most amazing beehives EVER, out of teak. A client of mine asked me to price out hives in teak, so one day at lunch sitting on the epi benches at Oxbow Market with my hardwood friend Lewis deSoto I got the 4-1-1 on the best wood guy around – Ed Clay. If you need anything made of wood you should call this guy, my experience was fabulous. http://www.edclay.com/ 
The hives are based on the Langstroth design but with much nicer screened bottoms and ventilated tops. Seriously, I have not been this affected by objects made in wood since seeing the show of furniture found in King Tut’s Tomb at the Metropolitan Museum of Art back in the mid-nineties. Albeit, at the time I was a complete Egypto-freak but still...if nothing else these hives have an attention to detail fit for a Pharaoh. As far as wood goes, teak is Greek to me, but I have been told the tight grain and texture will prevent aging and resist moisture. Teak is generally used in manufacturing outdoor furniture so we figured the wood could, and should, be used for beehives. For the price, teak had better resist moisture! I’m telling ya’ -measure twice cut once.
And you’ll only want to cut once because even though it’s easily worked teak can cause severe blunting on edge tools because of the presence of silica in the wood. This can’t be good, which is why I guess manufactured teak fetches the big cheddar I’m sure. Well, jacking up all your tools working with teak is one thing AND jacking-up the planet harvesting it is another. It should be expensive.
Some people shriek at using teak because of its un-sustainability, but according to Ed - the wood guy, the teak for this project was reclaimed from an old factory in Indonesia. Attention to detail is paramount the new teak hives will be located amongst some of the finest outdoor sculpture in the world. Think Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and Barry Flanagan.... super tight! I’m sure you’ve heard of the White House hives? Yeah so.... they’ve got nothing on these beauties.
Popular in the 1950s and 1960s in a style often referred to as Danish modern, teak has had a boom in popularity, Not so much in the way of beehives but you know that’s how we roll in the wine country. Always trying to set the next trend. Stay tuned for more imagery of the hives as they age over time.

 My therapist says when I cross my arms I'm not being open to new ideas. I don't think that's Ed's case cause I'm pretty sure he'd never made teak beehives before I called.  

From this.....

To this....

Heading out with the sleek teak

Rolling home with the funk

Measure twice...

Handrail detail

Installed

Howard Carter and Lord Carnovan Entering King Tut's Tomb, 1922

Last two beek weeks in pictures

Wheew!

This bee-blog thing is time consuming. Looking back I haven't gotten much done 'round here since the 8th, feels like just yesterday. What I'm going to try <--- key word try --- to do is up load some of the images I take out there while I'm rustling bees and make comments on them rather than doing longer posts less frequently. Certain times of the year it gets really difficult to manage the blog and bees because I'm either working with bees or talking about them all day -- the last thing I want to do at night is come home and type about them too! This time of year I am in 5-10 colonies a day checking them for brood and stores before sending them into winter. I'm talking going deep here, not just a pop of the lid for a quick looky loo. On my mother colonies I'm not overly concerned, they have shown me over time that they are decent producers of both honey and brood. It's the new colonies I have introduced into my apiaries I want to check-up on. Enough excuses....

Hop in, let's see how this rolls:

For the past month or two I have wanted to get a business card. It's always a little funny when people ask for a card and I don't have anything with my contact info. You guys know where to get me, right here at the blog, but not everyone is so bee savvy. For now I didn't want too get crazy - only the basics - my splitty and the bees... They should be ready in 7-10 working days. Lemme know and I'll hook you up with one fresh of the press.

Checkin' on the bees at College Ave.

It's a desert out there in the rural landscape, look at how hungry they are... That 1:1 hadn't hit the deck for a second before they were all up on it. Be careful, not only are some of my less foraging bees in a tight place right now but desperate x's call for desperate measures, robbing is rampant! Make sure you have all the gear needed on hand before you start working your bees but also keep the cover on them while you're not in the hive. Move quickly but efficiently and for the love of god don't leave any honey laying around.

I ended up feeding some of my bees - not my ideal scenario but what's one to do when there's follower to follower brood and no nectar or honey? I guess I could have thrown them a couple frames of the sticky icky from another colony but that's not the safest option either. You tell me. At least I'm brewing them up the Rudy Steiner, nothing is finer recipe... 1:1 sugar - water, whole chamomile (I was using just bags, but have since stepped it up thanks to Clay) and a pinch of salt. Not sure if it was Steiner or Gunther Hauk that said to also add Comfrey. Dunno about that but I have added some lavender blossoms in the feeder when I have them. Remember to ALWAYS reduce the entrance when feeding. I leave a very small opening at the far opposite side to discourage robbing. Actually, this image shows an external feeder but really if you have to feed your bees I'd use a method from inside the hive like a top or frame feeder. This particular feeder is a custom design made by a student of mine that has a long straw that goes down into the brood chamber. It's an experiment... Feed your bees inside the hive!

Working the bees at Billy G's. Take note of my VW head badge... I met a cat named Don in Napa that  wrenches v-dubs. He did me a fat solid by not only putting my badge on but installing seat belts, and adjusted my valves. We talked about doing a lot more to my car so stay tuned...  If you need aircooled assistance you should call Don's VW Repair 707.363.4779, he's the Volkswagon shiz-nit!

Working Roger's bees and making an Andy Goldsworthy-inspired entrance reducer. Don had just done the work on my truck the night before so I emptied it and forgot to bring proper reducers. The bees were a bit pissy so I decided to wear my gown. Sadly I just threw it in the bed when I drove off and It must have blown out in transit. So if you happen to come across a Dadant veil with the Napa Valley Bee Company logo on the back - it's mine..

Bee class at Arnie Bunter's.

Anytime is a great time when you're hangin' round Arnie but the ultimate bee bliss is working the girls at his place. Michael and I took our beekeeping - bee garden class that is normally held at the Connolly Ranch out to the Bunter's for a little bee fun and yum-yums.

This kid Scott took most the pictures. He did a wonderful job if I do say so myself.

Smokey....

Stirrin' 'em up!

Check-out Arnie's Exxon beekeeper get-up.

Laura having a bad veil day...

I got stung twice.

I went through my freezer this weekend and found a bunch of pollen I had forgotten about that I stashed away over the summer. The problem is that when you freeze wax it makes it really brittle and because of my lack of freezer finesse a lot of the frames that didn't have that plastic foundation broke apart. Not the end of the world, you can rubberband it back into a frame but why not have a little fun while your at it?

This one was too obvious.. I know, I know, how cliche but what am I meant to do? The shape presented itself and I couldn't deny. I hope the bees don't think it's as corny as I do. I wouldn't eat pollen out of heart shaped comb based on principle.

Once I was doing a hive removal where the bees built around all these twigs in a building. It was truly one of the coolest things I had seen bee do in a long time. I decided to try and recreate that while also securing some loose comb by harpooning the pieces together with sticks from around my yard.

I even put an acorn in it, corny.....! Can't wait to see what the bees do with these wax constructions. I don't suspect much will get done on them until next spring as I'm not seeing a lot of wax production this late in the year. I was thinking I may incorporate them into my over-wintering protocol in the upper box, so as the cluster moves up through winter they will run into some extra pollen treats along the way. Yum!

Sadly I ripped out all my Borage yesterday. My all time favorite bee plant had run it's course. Luckily for me and the bees it will reseed and hopefully I'll get another round before winter.

SEE BEES - FEEL BEES - THINK BEES

Hey now!

There is a great class quickly coming down the pike, starting this Thursday.
It's a beekeeping/ bee garden class through the Napa Adult School held at Connolly Ranch in Napa.

The class is only 4 sessions: Sept 10, 17, 24, and Oct 1st. 

It's short, sweet, and one of the best bee deals in town.

One of the classes is dedicated exclusively for personal hive checks. We can accommodate two, MAYBE three, hive inspections that night.

Another class will cover an in-depth/ get-your-hands-dirty -garden demo. This session will focus on plants you can incorporate in your landscape that will help offer the bees a year-round pollen/nectar source. I just finished the curriculum with Michael Lauer, who runs the ranch, and he will be heading that aspect of the class.  He said there will be plenty of take-home plants and seeds to get you started.

One night will be focused on canning where we will open the Connolly kitchen to everyone to bring their bounty to can or make preserves. A great opportunity to trade-up with other students and get a wonderful cross section of preserved fruits and veggies from around the valley.

 
Lastly, after we have done all the hive checks and assessed how much available honey will be left over for us, we'll go back to the ranch kitchen and have a honey extract-a-thon. We'll bring in a number of extractors, uncapping knifes and tables, filters,  and buckets. All you have to do is
bring your full honey frames and jars.

 Call the adult school today! (707) 253-3594

 Beekeeping: Have you noticed fewer bees in your garden recently?

Participate in planting a demonstration bee garden, while investigating the flora that supplies local bees with nectar and pollen year round. Learn about hive construction and management, correct handling procedures at all hive stages, mite resistance, and disease control. Discover the role of bees in local pollination of food and flowers. Materials list will be given on the first day of class. Students bring their own supplies, including protective clothing. 4 weeks

               9/10 - 10/1

5:00 pm -8:00 pm             Th             Connolly Ranch             Keller/Lauher             $85

SEE BEES

 

FEEL BEES

 

 

 

 

 

 

THINK BEES

 

TOO TRUE!

Everything this article says is for real!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090810174226.htm

A number of years ago I had this massive bump on my nugget.

Researchers attached the major component of bee venom to nano-sized spheres that they call nanobees.

For me, nanobees delivered the bee toxin melittin to my protrusion while protecting other tissues around my face from the toxin's destructive power. Within weeks my neoplasm stopped growing or even started to shrink. Today I live a happy, full life as a sustainable bimpless beekeeper in Napa, California.
God bless the stinger of the bee...