Local honey a hard-earned, and delicious, reward -

July is harvest time for the Pleasant Hill Humble Bee Honey beekeepers. Since March, when the bees returned from annual pollination duty in California’s almond groves, the beekeepers have cared for hives by treating for mites, control for swarming, and installing stronger queens who produce the tens of thousands of bees that are the hive’s workforce. Finally, on a 90-degree day, Humble Bee Honey’s co-owner, Ronnie Ellis, arrives with his crew to harvest the product of millions of bees onto flatbed trucks for transport to the company’s extraction facility near Highway 58.

Amidst a cloud of agitated bees, Ronnie and his crew of four begin cracking hives and loading the filled boxes of capped honey. Hive by hive, the crew carefully separates the boxes of filled honeycomb from the pallets of beehives stacked as many as ten boxes high. After the honey is removed, the two lowest boxes form the hives’ home core.

With over 60 bee yards scattered around the lower Willamette Valley, Humble Bee’s crews work seven days a week until the job is done.

Erica Ellis

Erica caught the beekeeping bug in 2008, and moved to Oregon from Delaware specifically to work more with bees. Ronnie is a Pleasant Hill native who has always had a fascination with bees and how industrious they are. In 2010, a small hobby project of 25 hives was started – and never stopped. Now with around 1,000 hives, their little project has blossomed into something real. A true family operation, this husband-and-wife team – with help from brothers and a cousin – make honey and a full spectrum of hive products in a warehouse located on the family farm.

Successful honey production depends on the welfare of the bees and there are no shortcuts. Timing plays an important role so that the hives are robust and filled with large numbers of bees when the honey flow starts. “You can have a great year for honey production, but if you don’t have adequate numbers of bees to go get the nectar, it won’t happen,” Ellis said.

Despite the vital role bees play in agricultural pollination and honey production, many consumers do not understand the workings of a beehive. A hive is not a factory, but the vital home for tens of thousands of bees. Successful bee yards must be located away from harmful environmental chemicals, especially herbicides. Hives are placed in vibrant and healthy environments with the right plant cover, accessibility, safety of human and animal neighbors, and protection from predators like bears and skunks. Said Ellis, “It can be pretty tricky locating hives. Lots of people like the idea of having bees on their property, but there are factors to be considered, starting with the right plant cover for producing honey.” There is some irony in the fact that a non-native plant, the Himalayan Blackberry, is the Willamette Valley’s primary honey source. Adding to that irony is the fact that honeybees are also non-native to North America.

Ronnie Ellis

Ronnie and Erica started beekeeping by working for renowned beekeeper Kim Vandersys of Bear Mountain Honey. Eventually they started Humble Bee, and this past year acquired Bear Mountain in a challenging expansion that has the company hopping. “Beekeeping is labor intensive, there’s no way around that and you do what has to be done when it’s time,” Ellis says.

Each box, filled with frames full of honey, weighs about 30 pounds, and the 144-box yield should come in around 4,000 pounds. Besides honey, valued bee products like pollen, wax and propolis are gathered and sold in a wide variety of forms. “When you think about the millions of trips required to collect the nectar from even more millions of flowers, you appreciate how miraculous honey is,” says Ellis. Surprisingly, honey is one of the most counterfeited foods on the planet, with phony substitutions, in place of the real thing. True local honey is as delicious as it is valued for its many properties.

Like all agriculture, not all aspects of a harvest can be controlled. There’s one element you never control: the weather. This year, all of the climate forces aligned for a strong crop. Late rains fattened the blackberry and other nectar producing plants, and the bloom was gradual and extended, which increased yields.

For most of us, a bee sting is something of a small trauma, but not for beekeepers. “You get used to it,” says Ellis, “but that doesn’t mean it’s always fun when they hit you.” During harvest, the clouds of disturbed bees can get riled up and stings are common.

Fortunately for beekeepers, their work is a relatively isolated occupation and they have been able to safely continue operations during the Coronavirus outbreak. Ellis said, “There are advantages of working outside in nature. Since 2010, our honey has been 100% produced by our bees in the Southern Willamette Valley.”