Connection between Wine Making and Bee Keeping
Wine making is just, plain and simple, a great thing. It takes one recipe sometimes and, after a little bit of experimenting, you realize that you’re hooked. And why not? Grapes are very rewarding to grow and wine is very rewarding to drink. So why not combine the two, grow your own grapes and make your own wine? If you only have one vine in your backyard, you won’t have to worry about pollination. It’s always a good idea to have a few vines though, so you might wonder how flowers are going to get fertilized.
The grapes themselves are a product of this fertilization process so if it doesn’t happen there won’t be any grapes and therefore no wine making. This is where wine making and bee keeping go hand in hand. Now before you rush out and decide to take up beekeeping too, or rent some bees (yes, you can do that), you need to know what variety of grapes you’re growing.
There has been some controversy as to whether there really is any correlation between wine making and bee keeping. The fact of the matter is that many of the varieties of grapes which are cultivated today are hermaphroditic. What this means is that every vine has both male and female characteristics and can fertilize itself. This is preferred because you know from up front that each vine, if taken care of properly, is going to bear fruit. There’s no extra work that you need to do to ensure bearing.
There are a few varieties though, such as the pistillate muscadines, which do require insect pollinators. These include the ‘Higgins’, ‘Jumbo’ and ‘Fry’ varieties. Seeing the relationship between wine making and bee keeping yet? While pollination in these types is mostly dependant on the wind, there is also a need for insects such as bees. Muscadines have two types of flowers: a female flower and another which is termed perfect flower, having both functional stamens and pistils. If you have vines with female flowers, they will need to be planted close to vines with perfect flowers in order for pollination to happen or you won’t get any fruit to make your wine with.
Bees used to occur naturally in many areas. Unfortunately, with the removal of vast areas of habitat in recent years, the resident bee populations have been on the decline. Don’t worry though. There are a number of businesses which offer bee rental services. They’ll bring the bees to you, set them up in your vineyard and leave them for the specified time. Bees are very low maintenance so it’s not like you’re going to have to feed them or anything like that. The fee that you’ll pay will vary from $10 to $180, depending on the season, and will cover the cost of rental and transportation.
Of course you could decide to be really ambitious and decide to take up both wine making and bee keeping. If you’re going to do this you need to be careful and remember that you are dealing with stinging insects. ‘Honey bee’ doesn’t sound all that dangerous but if you have an allergic reaction you could be in some serious trouble…and you will get stung: any beekeeper can tell you that. The easiest way to source your first hive is through a local beekeeper. This may also be the most expensive option, but the hive will already have been established and that will cut out some of your work.
If you’re a pistillate Muscadine grower, you won’t be able to avoid the connection between wine making and bee keeping. An experienced beekeeper is the best person to give you advice on what you should do in terms of renting a hive or setting one up of your own. You may be thinking that you’d like to abandon the variety altogether and concentrate on other varieties, and that’s ultimately up to you, but you’ll be giving up on a lovely type of grape if you do.
Tags: bee keeping, beekeeper, bees, fertilize, fry, grape vines, Higgins, insect pollinators, Jumbo, local beekeeper, Muscadine, pollination, stamens and pistils, varieties, wine, wine making and bee keeping
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