Marshall's Farm Honey: A Response to Colony Collapse

(Click on the photos to see larger versions)

There's a lot of talk about honeybees in the agriculture world lately. Bees pollinate 30 percent of the world’s food crops, and are instrumental in helping 90 percent of our wild plants survive, according to this great fact sheet by the NRDC. Unfortunately, there's been a steady decline in bee populations in recent years, caused by a condition known as Colony Collapse Disorder. There's plenty of unknowns related to CCD, but bee deaths have been linked to many factors, including global warming, pesticide use, habitat loss due to development and agriculture without wildlife buffers, and parasites. 25 percent of human-managed bee populations in the U.S. have disappeared since 1990. Needless to say, some people are worried about the bees. 

Last week I was lucky enough to visit Marshall's Farm Honey in Napa, where I got to learn about sustainable beekeeping, taste some honey, and even see a queen bee. The friendly beekeepers at Marshall's are incredibly devoted to their hives, and are trying to do things right when it comes to maintaining healthy bee populations. 

Spencer and Helene Marshall run Marshall’s Farm Honey. Spencer came from a farming family and started keeping a few hobby hives before he met Helene, a city girl, who eventually helped cultivate the business side of the operation. They now have 70 locations all over the Bay Area, with bees producing honey from blooms such as eucalyptus, star thistle, wildflower, and blackberry. Their honey is lightly filtered and unpasteurized, meaning that it is 100 percent pure and raw. 

Spencer walked us through how to open a hive, using smoke to confuse the bees. He said that since bees traditionally built hives in wooded areas, the smell of a potential fire makes them want to gorge themselves on honey in case the fire claims their home and food source. Using smoke means you can open a hive without all the bees flying away immediately. 

Once the frames were pried free from the hive, we looked at the hexagonal holes created by the bees. We saw capped holes that housed growing larvae as well as fresh honey combs. The bees walked around the surface (see photos) and we finally found the queen bee, who is longer than the other bees and has an unstriped abdomen. The queen bee starts as a normal worker bee, but selected as a larvae and fed royal jelly to help her mature into a queen bee. There is usually only one queen bee in every hive, and Spencer said that queen bees can live up to 8 or 9 years, although the end years won't be very productive. The worker bees, which make up most of the hive, live for 45 days and are all female. There are also drones in every hive, which are male worker bees whose function is to mate with the queen bee.

The honey was fantastic to try straight out of the hive. The Marshall's told us that the darker honeys have a deeper, more complex flavor than the lighter honeys. The beeswax that makes up the walls of the honeycomb is edible, and you can scoop out the wax and honey straight out of the comb to eat.

Marshall's Farm Honey is at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Thursdays and Saturdays.

To see more photos of the trip, visit the Spinning Spoons Facebook Page.