Plumas County Honey Company

03/06/2019

Plumas County Honey Company pollen analysis 2018.

Indian Falls

Pollen Taxa %
Alnus (alder) 1.3%
Arceuthobium (dwarf mistletoe) 4.4%
Brasenia (brasenia) 8.3%
BRASSICACEAE (mustard family) 5.7%
CAMPANULACEAE 0.4%
Centaurea (thistle) 15.3%
Eucalyptus/Melaleuca/Eugenia (gum) 0.4%
LAMIACEAE (cf. Salvia) (mint family) 0.9%
Lotus (trefoil) 2.2%
Picea (spruce) 0.4%
Quercus (oak) 3.1%
RHAMNACEAE (buckthorn family) 25.8%
Rhus /Toxicodendron (sumac, poison ivy) 3.9%
ROSACEAE (rose family) 21.0%
Sambucus (elderberry) 0.9%
Trifolium/Melilotus (clover) 5.2%

Pecks Valley

Pollen Taxa %
Acer (maple) 0.9%
ASTERACEAE (ragweed-type) 2 0.9%
ASTERACEAE (sunflower-type) 5.2%
Centaurea (thistle) 70.3%
Cirsium (thistle) 1.9%
Lotus (trefoil) 3.3%
Plantago (plantain) 2.8%
Polygonum (knotweed) 0.5%
Prunus (plum, peach, cherry) 1.4%
Quercus (oak) 1.9%
RHAMNACEAE (buckthorn family) 1.4%
ROSACEAE (rose family) 0.9%
Trifolium/Melilotus (clover) 7.1%

We were lucky enough to have our pollen analysis performed by, Vaughn M. Bryant, Jr., Professor and Director Palynology Research Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University.

https://www.beeculture.com/melissopalynology/

03/01/2019

The results are in! We sent our honey to be tested for the types of pollen, which gives us a snap shot of the plants our bees were visiting. What we found was very cool! Just to list a few at our apiary in Indian Falls we found; Arceuthobium, mistletoe as well as Sambucus, Elderberry. In Pecks Valley; plantago, plantain as well as Acer, Maple.
These are just a few of them, but very exciting not only because of their amazing medicinal attribute but also for the huge variety of plants our bees visit. The full list is coming for the folks that geek out on this type of thing like us. I feel bees of all kind hold a special magic, these glimpse's into that flight path are truly a gift. Thanks

02/28/2019

This rain is tough on bee's and can lead to an unhealthy hive, keep your hives dry. We had a lot of losses and set backs this year, in total our loss's were near 90% of all hives. In over a decade of keeping and loving bee's the hurdles are greater than ever as are the consequences of failure.
The varroa destructor mite is our #1 concern and we are still developing practices to combat this common problem facing beekeepers in the US and Europe. Everyday beekeeping is a day of growth and education, thank you to all our customers and families for making it possible. We still have a limited supply of honey, both from Indian valley and Indian falls, pm us for pricing and can deliver to Quincy and Indian valley area for orders of 30$ or more.
Thanks

05/28/2018

We have had a very good and busy spring, from helping save honey bees lost during bad highway accident(4th pic) to fortifying our bee yards after a bear attack. This spring we have doubled our number of bee hives and expanded our locations around the county, in hopes of keeping up our inventory of local honey, wax, pollon and propolis. We are excited about our future and the future of honey bees, our hope/mission is to work as hard for the bees as they work for us. So we have our work cut out for us to say the least. PCHC is proud to present our new shirts, with all proceeds to be used solely to care for bees and provide education to our amazing county and state. The first five shirt sales comes with a half pint of fall forest honey. Happy memorial day, thank you one and all. Thanks for the continued support and love. Shirts- 25$

02/22/2018

Bees have a sixth sense for finding flowers; Check out this article:

Bumblebees use their body hair to detect weak electric fields, a new study finds. Researchers even caught the process on video.

01/17/2018

Spring is close and brings the opportunity to start a honey bee family\ colony and help pollinate our great county. We are offering a variety of packages to help newbees start keeping bees, from package installation to whole setups with langstroth boxes or try our family designed top bar boxes which thrive in our cold climate. Packages of Carniolan or Italian bees usually sell out in mid to late February so reserve yours soon, and we can work together saving the bees one hive at a time. Private message us with questions or for pricing. Thanks and bee kind.

06/05/2017

PCHC honey now available at Cherrywood Cafe & Grill in Greenville.

04/11/2017

The 2017 Spring season has begun! We've introduced 10 more colonies of Carniolan honeybees to our apiary, we've also started working on some videos to help answer question's for new and aspiring bee keepers and to show folks how fascinating honeybees are, they really are amazing.
Now we're all just waiting for the rain to stop so things can start bumpin', I can't wait!.

04/04/2016

Bad ass spring day, pretty productive.

01/13/2016

Just finished a live show on kqnc 91.9 Quincy community supported radio showcasing honey bees and all their beautiful way, lots of fun reruns Jan 15 at 1pm and Jan 17 at 11pm check it out and more shows come hope you enjoy

12/21/2015

California's native bees need protected land to hibranate and grow their young, the destruction of our central valley native habitat needs to stop and be restored. We need healthy bee communities and bees need healthy plant communities, plant hedgerows and insectary plants, make monocultures a mistake of the past. I wanted to share this great quote by Henry David Thoreau "The keeping of bees is like the direction of Sunbeams" and without either we will be in he dark.

12/05/2015

Migratory bee keeping is as good of a way to kill bees as GMOs or neo nic and is strongly linked to CCD. Millions of bees yearly are shipped from coast to coast, stripped of there bearing and dropped in barren mono-culture and force fed high fructose corn syrup (GMO) and treated with chemical miticides and we wounder why are all the bees disappearing and why CCD. They are running from us. We need to start treating the things we need and love with more respect, or this keystone species could spell the end. Think before you buy, and help show Monsanto and big business that we can not be bought with cheap crap. Our kids will thank us and mother earth deserves it.