New Film: The Queen of the Sun

Last summer was the summer of food docs, and although we haven't been hearing about as many food-related films this year, there are still a bunch of good ones to go out and see. One that I'm particularly looking forward to is The Queen of the Sun, a new film about the global bee crisis from filmmaker Taggart Siegel. The film looks at colony collapse disorder through the eyes of biodynamic beekeepers, scientists, farmers, and philosophers.

Siegel's approach to documenting the sustainable food movement is character-driven (see the clip below); for evidence, look no further than his 2005 film The Real Dirt on Farmer John.

After spending a day filming with beekeeper Melanie Kirby in New Mexico, I can say that unless you're completely at ease with hundreds of bees buzzing around your head, filming a movie like this must have been pretty tough.

Check out Queen of the Sun's upcoming screening schedule.

-Mark

Flip Clip: Fascinating Facts About Bees

During our recent visit to Zia Queenbee Company, I learned some fascinating facts about bees from co-owner Melanie Kirby and dodged some close calls with bees who were very interested in my camera equipment! Luckily, Melanie decked me out in a special white head net so I could get close to the hives. Here are some things we learned during our visit: 

• What's bees wax made of? Worker bees collect pollen from flowers as far as five miles around the hive. They have special wax-producing glands that covert the sugar from honey into wax, and the wax is then extruded through small pores in their abdomen. But I like Melanie's more poetic description: "Bees sweat out tears of gold to build their home."

• How is honey made? Honeybees use nectar to make honey. Nectar is almost 80 percent water with some complex sugars. In North America, bees get nectar from flowers like clovers, dandelions, berry bushes and fruit tree blossoms. They use their long, tube-like tongues like straws to suck the nectar out of the flowers and they store it in their "honey stomachs". The honeybees return to the hive and pass the nectar onto other worker bees. These bees suck the nectar from the honeybee's stomach through their mouths (Melanie calls this "the bee kiss").  These "house bees" chew the nectar using enzymes to break the complex sugars into simple sugars. The bees then spread the nectar throughout the honeycombs where water evaporates from it, making it a thicker syrup. The bees make the nectar dry even faster by fanning it with their wings. This reduces the amount of water in the honey so it doesn't ferment.

• What is propolis? Propolis is often called "bee glue." It's the sticky resin that seeps from the buds of some trees and oozes from the bark of others. Propolis has antiseptic, antibiotic, antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. Melanie and Mark make a propolis tincture that they swear by for helping cure infections and mouth sores.

• Why is there only one queen bee in a hive? Queen bees are highly territorial and fierce! When a queen bee first emerges from her cell, she makes a peeping noise to see if any other young queen bees are nearby. If she hears a response, she will find the other queen bee's cell, chew through it and fight to the death! 

Stay tuned for our video about sustainable beekeeping at Zia Queenbee Company!

-Dorothée

Zia QueenBee Co: Sustainable Beekeeping in New Mexico

We don't know if it's possible, but each stop on the Southwest Tour seems better than the last. A day after reaching Santa Fe, NM, we met up with Melanie Kirby, co-owner of Zia Queenbee Co, and followed her on a gorgeous hour-long drive to her home in Truchas, NM.

With her husband Mark, Melanie breeds Survivor Queenbees that are sold to beekeepers around the country so they can build healthy hives. They strive for sustainability in their day-to-day operations as well as by breeding queen bees that are strong, healthy, and docile. Their approach ensures that the bees are genetically diverse and by giving their queen bees extra time to mature, they prove themselves to be naturally resilient against disease, pests and weather fluctuations.

Here's a statement form the Zia Queebee Co website that sums up their approach to natural beekeeping and why it's so important to support:

Beekeeping is a dying art. However, as long as we require food to eat, there will be a need for honeybees and beekeepers. As new diseases, pests and challenges afflict honeybees, we need to be innovative and dedicated to conscientious management protocols. It is imperative that we cooperate as a local, regional and national community to ensure positive stewardship of our lands, resources and health.

In the four hours we spent with Melanie we learned more about bees, queen bee breeding, and honey than we could have imagined! One of the questions we raised was about Colony Collapse Disorder, which has been destroying bee hives across the country for the past four years. Fortunately, Melanie and Mark haven't been directly affected, and although Melanie doesn't claim to know the exact cause of CCD, she and Mark take careful precautions to keep their bees healthy and bred for resilience.

After filming an interview and dodging bees for a couple of hours (nobody was stung!), we joined Melanie and her 18-month-old daughter Isis for a honey tasting inside. Both of us have always enjoyed honey, but until yesterday, we never fully appreciated the complexity and difference of flavor that hives foraging from diverse flowers can produce.

Stay tuned for the video, which we'll post in the coming weeks, and be sure to follow Melanie on her blog.

-Mark & Dorothée