California Beekeeper From Mexico
Ettamarie Peterson
I first met Hector Alvarez at the Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Club (now an association) meetings twenty-eight years ago. I was a brand-new beekeeper and he was already a seasoned beekeeper in spite of his young age. He was only twenty-four years old at the time. We became good friends through the years. He has always impressed me as an extremely hard worker and excellent beekeeper. When I have a problem with my bees, I can ask him for help and know I will get sound advice based on his years of working with his bees and expanding his own knowledge.
Hector came to California from Mexico at the age of sixteen in 1984 with the original goal of being able to make enough money to go back to Mexico. He wanted to be a beekeeper with his father’s beekeeping operation in Mexico. His father had worked in Northern California off and on many years. He had been able to build some beehives that he left behind when he returned to the family in Mexico. These hives were made from plywood in the way they kept bees there. The typical Mexican hives were built deeper than the Langstroth boxes. Hector’s brother was already in Sonoma County and was able to show him where the father’s hives were. There were three and they had survived on there own since his father had left a few years before. This was before mites had become a problem. Those colonies were the start of what Hector has now built into his successful business he calls, “Hector’s Honey”.
One of Hector’s first jobs in Sonoma County was helping a business that built houses. His responsibility was to clear away a lot of lumber. He got the idea to glean the lumber to build his own bee boxes instead of just dumping it in the dumpster. He filled his first homemade boxes with his father’s bees. Then Hector built more boxes and filled them with swarms A few years later he had twelve to fifteen hives. While working for another company that was a nursery, he was helping at their booth at the Sonoma County Fair. Nearby the nursery’s booth he spotted the Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Club’s booth. On his break, he went over to talk to the volunteer beekeepers. He made friends with them. Soon one talked Hector into taking his bees to pollinate the almonds, offering to help get the bees over to the Central Valley and back. This was in 1988. At first, because he was living in an apartment and had no space of his own, the owner of the Urban Tree Farm let him use a work area and tools. Later Hector was able to buy his own truck and had increased his number of hives to take to the almonds. Years later he had expanded from a truck and flatbed trailer to a huge truck with a boom. He bought it from an Idaho migratory beekeeper. It is amazing how by his hard work he has built up his business to be the best known and have the highest respected bee keeping business in Sonoma County.
Last year he took his best 512 colonies to the almonds. Over the years he has met various almond growers. For many years he maintained contracts with the same ranches. He has contracted with growers up and down California’s Central Valley. Now he works with a broker. Hector prides himself on taking only good strong colonies. He over winters all of them in various apiaries around Sonoma County. He does not have to feed his bees because he always leaves enough honey on each colony to be sure they are ready to go to the almonds around the first week of February.
In 1990 he married Sandra. She is also a very hard worker, helping Hector with a multitude of tasks in the honey business. One of her most import jobs is selling honey at various farmers markets and at the Apple Fair Booth. She does many other behind-the-scenes jobs such as cleaning pollen and helps with making candles. They have two lovely daughters who have also grown up helping in the family honey business. The oldest daughter is now married and has three wonderful children. The younger daughter has studied making herbal medicines and uses Hector’s propolis in a tincture. She is now studying nutrition at University of California at Davis. Both girls proudly tell everyone how many generations of beekeepers are in the Alvarez family and are extremely well versed on the benefits of honey, pollen and propolis.
At first Hector sold his honey in the Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Club’s booths at the fairs. Then he found some health food stores that would sell his honey. After that he discovered a farmers’ market and asked if he could sell his honey, pollen and candles. At one point, I remember, he told me he was selling at eleven different farmers’ markets, but he has cut back on that number now. At this time, he and Sandra sell at eight different farmers’ markets. They sell their refrigerated pollen in a few health food stores.
Slow Food USA, according to their website, “reconnects Americans with the people, traditions, plants, animals, fertile soils and waters that produce our food. They inspire individuals and communities to change the world through food that is good, clean and fair for all.” This organization invited Hector and his family to go to their five-day international convention in Italy one year as their guests. Hector was honored to be chosen to carry the United States flag in the opening ceremony along with people from all over the world. He will never forget how proud he was to do this. They told him he was chosen for his hard work and building his business up all on his own. This was truly a great time for Hector and his family. It was a very well-deserved honor.
Speaking of honors, Hector has won numerous prizes for his honey, wax displays, pollen and honey comb. He has so many trophies from the fairs he has lost count. He always puts aside the best honey, pollen, wax and frame of capped honey for the competitions. I remember one time when the Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Association was ordering the Sonoma County Harvest Fair trophy someone on the committee said, “You might as well put Hector’s name on it because he will win it again!” He had a good laugh when I told him that! He always brings some of his awards to show his Farmers’ Market customers. It is a great marketing help. People love to go home with a product from Hector’s award-winning business.
Hector is a wonderful teacher. One time I had a problem with a very defensive colony. I called him up to ask him if he would come over to help me with it. I thought maybe I might have to requeen it or something and needed expert advice. Well, Hector opened that hive and immediately saw what the problem had been. He explained the colony had been too crowded and just swarmed. He pointed out the new queen. When I asked him how he knew it was a new queen, he nicely explained that she was running around. He told me virgin queens do that until they are mated. Once they are mated, they settle down and walk much more slowly. He also showed me the hatched queen cells and the torn down swarm cells. He read the frames like a person reads a book, showing me all the signs of a recently swarmed colony. By this time the colony was no longer defensive, by the way.
Every August there is a wonderful small fair put on by Sonoma County Farm Trails, a marketing organization made up of Sonoma County farmers and agricultural related businesses. This is the Gravenstein Apple Fair. The Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Association has an educational booth for this three-day fair and members can also sell honey there. Visitors love their booth and especially enjoy tasting the many varieties of honey Hector brings. His wife, daughters and Hector are always there introducing people to the many tastes of local honey. Hector also takes a turn going into their screened tent to demonstrate how to open a beehive. The public is fascinated by his explanations of what is in a typical beehive. He walks around, holding a frame of bees, pointing out various things such as the queen, brood, pollen and honey.
Hector’s year is extremely full. Getting hives ready to take to the almonds is not just loading a bunch of bee hives on pallets and putting them on a truck. The colonies are constantly evaluated. Decisions have to be made as to what hives should be combined, left behind or taken as is. In January he goes to his various out apiaries to check the strength of each hive. He decides what needs to be done to make sure he has only colonies that will be accepted as eight strong frames or better. This may mean he has to move frames from one colony to another. Sometimes he will combine two small colonies together to make one strong one. Sometimes he needs just to add a frame or two to a colony.
In February, he has to be heading for the almonds around the 8th of the month. This means a lot of loading up and hopefully in good weather! The almonds usually start blooming in mid-February. Hector does have an advantage of being a California beekeeper year-around and not having to haul the hives thousands of miles. Going to the Northern almonds can be about three hours or more from his base in Fulton. Going to the Southern almonds can be four hours or more.
In March in the middle of the month to about the first of April, depending on the orchard manager’s wishes, Hector pulls the colonies from the almond orchards. He brings them back to Sonoma County. He has decided months before which colonies he can make new queens from and which ones he wants to make splits from. Those colonies are marked so then he can make the splits with those good queens. Besides doing his bee work, this is the month he plows and plants his crops on his two-acre home farm and the fourteen-acre farm he bought nearby. This produce is also sold at his farmers’ market booths.
In April, he returns colonies to the various apiaries depending on how dry they are. If the areas are too wet, he has to consider where to locate the colonies until they dry out. Swarming season is happening at this time, so he has to be on top of everything making divides and new queens. He wants to do this as early as possible to have good strong colonies for the next winter.
May is the major nectar flow in Sonoma County so this means he is busy adding supers. Going from apiary to apiary doing this and selling his products at the farmers’ markets, keeps him moving constantly.
In June and July Hector is pulling supers out and extracting the honey. He has hives in various locations with different floral sources. Some of his honey is lavender, some blackberries, some yellow star thistle and other varieties including mixed floral. People love to taste all of the different varieties when they go to the Hector Honey booths at the farmers’ markets and the Apple Fair.
In August and September, he is harvesting the last honey and getting the hives ready for winter. He will combine the weakest ones. He is careful to always leave enough honey for each colony to make it through the winter. The wet frames are over wintered in his huge workshop and not returned to the colonies. He feels that would cause robbing. The wet frames are given back in the spring.
In October he moves bees to winter locations before the rains come. Of course, then he has the huge tasks of cleaning up bee equipment! Besides the bee work, he has his two farms to ready for winter crops.
In November and December, Hector is kept busy checking the hives for adequate food and the never-ending tasks of cleaning equipment.
Hector Alvarez, as you can see, is one of the most industrious beekeepers in the business. I am proud to call him my friend and mentor.
