I just finished checking most of my honeybees and found many of them did not make it. Fortunately we had ordered package bees and installed them.
GLYPHOSATE
These findings have been supported by additional research which found that “GLY at concentrations found in agro-ecosystems as a result of standard spraying can reduce sensitivity to nectar reward and impair associative learning in honey bees.” (Herbert et.al., 2014)
News from the Vineyard
Cold winter temps in January caused a bit of damage in the vineyard - but I am still seeing good growth on these sensitive varieties.
We just planted more "Steuben" grapes. Steuben is a beautiful blue table grape that also makes very good wine.
Buffalo - Foch Wine
Last fall Mark (my son in law) along with a few of his friends picked 3 bushels of buffalo and some foch grapes. Recently his friends came over and picked up some of the wine. It was very good.
All we did was pick and crush the grapes, added wine yeast and pressed the must a week later, then 12 lbs of honey was added at that time. The wine was great with a little residual sugar left.
On a different note - unplanned things always happen!
I had a medical issue I had to deal with in the spring and some weed control did not happen, so you may see a few more weeds in the vineyard in the fall.