Napa Valley Bee Company

Napa Valley Bee Company Napa Valley Bee Company is a sustainable honeybee organization that recognizes the importance of strong genetics in our local bee.

Breeding from survivor stock in our area is a way to solve many of the problems with species

Better late than never… Taxiing down the runway towards Paris… I’ll be there for a week then bullet training to London f...
03/27/2023

Better late than never…
Taxiing down the runway towards Paris… I’ll be there for a week then bullet training to London for the Learning From The Bees Conference…
Any beeks or beekeeping things I shouldn’t miss…?
Appreciative in advance..
on the move abroad…

Yeah, we thought we were out of the weeds. Temps were in the low 60’s, drones were popping, things were looking really g...
03/01/2023

Yeah, we thought we were out of the weeds. Temps were in the low 60’s, drones were popping, things were looking really good. We even started laying out the Peeps welcoming the bees to spring…. woes

At first it seemed like it was going to be a relatively normal year. The mustard bloomed, the clown faced bees arrived, ...
03/01/2023

At first it seemed like it was going to be a relatively normal year. The mustard bloomed, the clown faced bees arrived, a few colonies even jumped the followers. As beekeepers we began thinking to ourselves “ We’ve had s**ttier years….”

Alright tri-county beekeepers, we’re opening our apiary in Napa for a hands-on club meeting Saturday the 16th at 10a. Jo...
07/11/2022

Alright tri-county beekeepers, we’re opening our apiary in Napa for a hands-on club meeting Saturday the 16th at 10a. Join us for all levels of discussion and a beautiful day with the bees. DM me if you have any questions or need directions…

When you can’t decide which of the locally adapted queen cell to use so you roll the dice and stack them fat with one of...
05/09/2022

When you can’t decide which of the locally adapted queen cell to use so you roll the dice and stack them fat with one of each…
with too many queen cells at once at a higher standard

The clown bees are back…!The clown bees are back…!It’s always such a warm welcome to spring here in Napa when the days g...
01/19/2022

The clown bees are back…!
The clown bees are back…!
It’s always such a warm welcome to spring here in Napa when the days get a little longer, the sun moves higher on the horizon, the bees start flying a little more, and the bright yellow brassicaceae start to pop in the vineyards. It’s still early, there’s not a lot of available forage for the bees so they’re all over the mustard. If you watch them closely they hit the flower with vigor, rolling over the entire petal covering themselves with pollen. Sometimes with such intensity they pull the loose petals free, inadvertently carting them back to the hive. Hitchhiking alongside big yellow pollen pellets in already stuffed corbiculas. Which we’ll find later dried up and discarded on the monitoring trays. At the hive entrance the bees foraging activities are very distinctive with their faces covered in yellow dust like little clowns coming and going. It’s always super exciting to see the first ones of the season. Sadly they don’t last long, the first vineyard manager will decide to clearcut the cover crop, then like dominoes the rest of the valley will cut theirs too. So as quickly as the clown bees come >< they’ll go…. circus observations

With great sorrow I bring to you the passing of our wonderful dog Marley. This is going out to all the people who crosse...
12/21/2021

With great sorrow I bring to you the passing of our wonderful dog Marley. This is going out to all the people who crossed paths with him and will know exactly what I’m talking about here.
What an amazing pet, I’m still not fully convinced that after 14 years I ever quite figured him out. He was a quiet, gentle soul of very very few words. He really didn’t need anyone other than Davis. I got that, and gave him that space. I never had to pull the alpha male thing on him, no need… He was his own dog, he knew the rules, rarely pushed boundaries, but also always did what he wanted to do. I can’t ever remember really raising my voice at him, not sure it’d make a difference anyway, he’d just blow me off. And as an partial owner what do you do with that..? Nothing, absolutely nothing… We knew that much about each other and accepted it. As he got older we grew closer, he’d spend more time at my house with the puppy. At some point it got to where I’d have to lift him up into the truck. At first he’d be all “ I got this…! Put me the f**k down…!” But as it became a more regular occurrence we finely got to a place of trust and gratitude. I loved having him around because he was such low maintenance and a stellar presence. He’d came to excepting me bear hugging him into the vehicle to be able to go wherever it was we were going. I’ll miss Mar, but I have my own dog, so somehow it seem a little easier. What really hurts is watching Davis lose his best friend and comrade over the last decade and a half. A true right of passage going through your first dog.
God )dog( speed Marley, you’ll be deeply missed.
that has dogs life outside the hive

See…. You guys thought I was just a beekeeper…Negative - dropped off some massive Buddha hands and fuyu persimmons to ...
12/11/2021

See…. You guys thought I was just a beekeeper…
Negative - dropped off some massive Buddha hands and fuyu persimmons to today. I don’t know what they’ll do with the persimmons, but the Buddha hands will to get candied later this week.
Grown right in my front yard in downtown Napa..
grows

What time is it…..?The best thing about bees is that they’re on their own schedule. Doesn’t matter what your day looks l...
12/08/2021

What time is it…..?
The best thing about bees is that they’re on their own schedule. Doesn’t matter what your day looks like, they’ve got stuff to do.
que hora es…?
on their schedule

After my last post it got me to thinkin’…There’s that whole thing to having gratitude for the bee, and it’s real… let’s ...
12/03/2021

After my last post it got me to thinkin’…
There’s that whole thing to having gratitude for the bee, and it’s real… let’s not forget that.. but there’s also something that kind of sticks with me as I move forward with the species.. it’s not an easy one, but one the old timers can definitely relate. That is how things have changed so radically over the last two decades. I’m a little bummed I wasn’t in it pre-varroa. Imagine that, stacking up supers on your hives and they’d fill em’ up overnight. No crazy honeybee heroics with vaporizers or shop towels dipped in who knows what, and that wedge, that divisive triangle that slowly started working it’s way between beekeepers. Yeah, it’s been non-stop now for about 15 years. Treating vs. not treating, mite bombs, and the endless finger pointing. Man, back in the day I couldn’t think of kinder group of people than my local crew. We were all super supportive, worked together, learned together, and modeled the way of the hive. It’s interesting as we push forward in our two distinctive camps that we’re all starting to see the same thing… That the treatments (or the lack of) aren’t really the end all be all. The bees are dying regardless, we’re all seeing it, don’t lie.. I’m losing bees out the ass, the treaters are too.. I suspect it’ll all come down to focusing more on isolating genetic stock that proves itself to be resistant to the varroa associated viruses, and less hygienic-centric breeding. Sure, I’d be foolish to sit here and say colonies with fat mite loads thrive, generally not.. but, but, but we’re also seeing treated bees with low loads die from the same symptoms. First five to DM their addys get a free Beeco Doka sticker designed by bad ass ~ thanks to for cutting loose

I know I’ve kinda been out of the game for a minute, but it’s been a stupidly challenging year over here.. Yeah sure, th...
11/29/2021

I know I’ve kinda been out of the game for a minute, but it’s been a stupidly challenging year over here.. Yeah sure, there’s the usual s**t like mites, queenlessness, and the endless parade of spray reports. But if that’s not enough… the drought has been a real pile driver complicating things even further.
But I’m not here to go on about that, I want to share a little bit of what I’ve been thinking about over this long weekend. Gratitude, that’s right… just straight up being thankful for all the species has done for me. First and foremost they helped me roll out as a baller, no really, it’s mostly been on them, (don’t tell anyone), I just had to follow their lead. All you’ve got to do these days is just say you’re a beekeeper and people listen. The other players out there know exactly what I’m talking about… Apis mellifera has also given me a purpose… a purpose that turned into a lifestyle. I’ve grown to be absolutely swoon by them and will do everything I can to work with them and their biology to make it an easier go with all that’s on their plate. They have given me a platform to build on for teaching kids. I always knew I was going to be an educator, it was just a slam dunk when I threw bees in the mix. We have one the nicest educational apiaries in NorCal at the .helena_montessori where we have been teaching adolescent kids regenerative hive management for over a decade now. although for sure the biggest thing the species has thought me is to slow down. Not only physically, but mentally and materialistically as well. Working with them is like meditative game of chess, each move pre-calculated based on prior experiences.
So here we are wrapping up this Thanksgiving weekend, think we can take an Instagram second here to thank the bee.. Not only for what they do for us collectively, but what they also do for us as individuals. gratitude. feeling the love

Sadly, at least in our region, many of us are going to have to feed our bees this year. What we’re seeing here in the Na...
06/27/2021

Sadly, at least in our region, many of us are going to have to feed our bees this year. What we’re seeing here in the Napa Valley is any first year bees are really struggling. First year meaning any bees that started this spring including (but not limited to) swarms, spilts, nucs, packages, or cut-outs. They just didn’t have time to build up and as far as we can see utilized all their stores building comb then got pile driven with what they’re now calling a megadrought. Tomorrow we’re having a meeting all about this current weather trend, what it means for bees living in our region, and what you can do to throw your bees a life preserver. To Feed, or Not to Feed is the theme, and yes, that’s Hamlet in the feeder. So Please…. if you have first year bees and new to all this try and join us tomorrow at BOCA 5p so we can help get you up to speed. There’ll be a lot of the super smart tri-county players on hand doing hive dives, feeding demos, inspections, or just straight-up FaceTime.
For more info jump on the club site:
Beekeepersofnapavalley.org Sign-up
https://www.beekeepersofnapavalley.org/contact
And we’ll do our best to keep you in the loop.
This year Napa are gunna need to be on their A game if they wanna keep their B’s in the green desert….

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Napa, CA
94559

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+17074865039

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