Pollination plays a huge role in the foods we eat today. Some crops that thrive when pollinated are cherries, apples, blueberries, prunes, alfalfa, etc. Wingfield Honey Co. is mostly involved in almond pollination at the beginning of the year in California. Hives are also pollinating a variety of gardens and organic farms in and around Grass Valley and Nevada City.

If you are interested in beekeeping and ready to make the leap, a very good way to begin is to start with a nucleus colony. A 5-frame cardboard box, filled with 3 frames of brood, 2 frames of honey and pollen and a proven and established queen, is the best way to get started. Many of my nucs, started in April, make a nice honey crop by end of summer.

We selectively raise our queens from colonies that exhibit a propensity for overall health and this means in addition, their ability to control their own varroa mite infestation levels. Our stock is periodically refreshed with those targeted genetic mite resistance behaviors from breeders from Golden West Queen stock.

It has been such a blessing to be able to make honey in the pristine areas of Nevada County. We are able to produce a very unique honey in different areas of the counties from around 1000' elevation all the way up to around 6,500' elevation. The majority of the apiaries are at around the 2,000' to 3,000' elevations. The apiaries are located far away from any large monocropping and this plays a large role in the ability to control what the bees forage and bring back to the colonies.