What’s all the buzz about?

Biodynamics & The Honeybee Program at Joseph
Phelps Vineyards

By Sarah Black, Viticulturist

Honeybees (Apis mellifera), were introduced to California in the mid 19th century. They are beneficial insects and effective pollinators whose contribution to our food supply and to our environment is greatly underappreciated. The success or failure of many agricultural crops depends on pollination: bees add billions of dollars to the agro-economy as they pollinate various crops.

The hive works as a whole organism. No honeybee can survive very long isolated from the others. These colonies of social insects consist mainly of workers, which make up 90-100% of the entire population and are all female. Each colony has (usually) one queen, also female, and between 1-2% male bees called drones. The worker bees basically work themselves to death: the average lifespan of a worker bee during the periods of the most intense activity (foraging and brood rearing) is about 4-6 weeks.

In a well-managed hive, a colony of honeybees contains from a few thousand to 60,000 or more bees. As you might imagine, things can get pretty crowded! Part of being a good beekeeper is keeping these lovely ladies comfortable. Many of the hive manipulations I perform are to expand or reduce space within the colony, depending on the time of year or condition of the hive. In addition to this task, I also monitor disease, ventilation, and pest pressures during a hive inspection.

A honeybee colony is an amazing self-sustaining model. Looking down from the tasting terrace, amidst the vineyard landscape, lies our small but growing apiary. [Ed. Note: See photo on front page.] The importance of the honeybees to our farming operation is simple wholeness. Just as the hive acts as its own organism, our ranch is taking on the form of a single entity. This is occurring through our dedication to sustainable and biodynamic farming practices, of which the honeybee is a part by adding diversity to the farm organism.

Though the honeybee is not an important pollinator for self-pollinating grapevines, she is beneficial to many other plant species growing around us. We are currently in the process of growing our beneficial insect population (butterflies, ladybugs, lacewings, parasitic wasps, syrphids, spiders and flies) through inter-planting of flower corridors within the vine rows. The success of our insectary plantings are greatly increased and enhanced by the honeybees. These other insects also help to provide biological control against common vineyard insect pests (sharpshooters, leafhoppers, mealybugs and certain spiders).

Bees are also needed for the pollination of most fruits, many vegetables, alfalfa, vetch, seed crops and many other crops. They gather pollen, forming pellets on their hind legs, and also carry grains of pollen on their hairs from plant to plant (cross-pollination), contributing to a greater production of fruit and seeds. A honeybee will forage in a radius of approximately 3 miles from its home.

Among the many treasures that can be harvested from the hive – while always being mindful of the honeybee’s sting – are wax, propolis, pollen and of course honey. All of these products carry with them an extensive list of health benefits.

I am personally grateful to the lessons the honeybees have taught me so far in my short time as a beekeeper. Also I want to thank Master Beekeeper, Serge Labesque. The bee facts in this article come from bits and pieces of Serge’s lectures and articles promoting natural beekeeping in Northern California.

In order to inspect the hive, Sarah loosens the apiary frames which the bees have glued in place using propolis, a substance made from plant resin used to seal cracks in the hive.

Sarah gently sprays the bees with a heatless smoker fuel made from unrefined cotton. The smoke is designed to calm the bees, who interpret the smoke as a threat to the hive and thus fill up on honey which, in theory, makes them lethargic and less likely to sting. In practice, she admits the bees appear angry when sprayed with smoke, and she sometimes adds dried chamomile or thyme to the fuel in hopes of increasing its sedative value.

Taking out each frame for inspection, Sarah observes comb building and honey storage.

Here she evaluates the brood pattern and looks for the queen.