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Posts tagged as 'bees'
Sorry for those of you who missed the last farm tour. It was nice to meet some new folks and see old friends. I've got a gun to my head to finish a writing project, so there won't be a tour in August. Plan on a Friday in early September.
In the meantime, here's the farm report.
The bees I caught last year are doing really well. There seems to be lot of activity, though I was worried about the queen's laying pattern last time I did an inspection (which was awhile ago--I hate bothering them). The swarm caught this spring in Alameda has died out. The queen never started laying and it all went to hell. I partially blame myself because I had this really jankity brood box with very funky frames.
The garden is in that awkward mid-summer phase where the greens are done but the tomatoes aren't quite ripe yet. Luckily there is something to eat because it's summer apple season. One of our neighbors comes in and picks them, which pisses Bill off, but I'm resigned--and even a little supportive--of the lot pillagers. Times are tight in the ghetto and the more fresh food I grow, the healthier the people around here will be. In a nod to my hippiedom, I'm growing corn and sunflowers, crops I usually don't pursue. However, I have a reason! I do like sweet corn. And, the goats will very gladly eat the corn stalks. So it's a multi-use plant. Similarly, goats like sunflower leaves and seeds.
The chickens on the deck are getting big, ...
Tagged as bees, fruit trees, rabbits, vegetables, visitors | 6 Comments » | Continue 
This upcoming Saturday has me tortured. There's the Rare Fruit Growers event about all the weird-ass fruit you can grow around here AND a Bee Symposium in Santa Rosa with the creme de la creme of the sustainable bee-keeping world: Randy Oliver, Eric Mussen, Serge Labesque, bee movies, "bee art", and more.
Here's their blurb: "In this time of global ecological challenges, the honeybee is an indicator species reflecting the enormous changes taking place in our world. Bee populations are dying and pollination ecology is deeply effected. As beekeepers, we must become stewards of the earth and change paradigms. This one-day symposium offers information and speakers with new perspectives on honeybees and native pollinators, beekeeping practices, innovative approches and ecological strategies for beekeepers."
The fruiters are meeting at 1-4; but the bee symposium goes from 9-6! Like a smart couple, Bill said he would go to the fruit, and I'll go to the bee thing. Divide and conquer, baby.
I'll let you know everything I learn at both events, assuming Bill takes good notes and my car makes in to Santa Rosa.
If anyone wants to go to either, here's the info:
Bee Symposium 2008
Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm
655 Willowside Road, Santa Rosa, CA
March 8; 9-6
$30 at door
by phone 707/824-2905
lunch for purchase on-site
OR
CRFG: Unusual Edibles in the Bay Area
El Sobrante Branch Library, 4191 Appian Way, El Sobrante, CA
March 8; 1-4pm
"Not only is the climate different in different Bay Area counties, but even within a given town there are microclimates. Our members will talk about what's growing for them and what's not. What usually works but hasn't in this wacky climate change year..."
**photo of my beehive courtesy Julie Johnson and the JSchool**
Tagged as bees | 10 Comments » | Continue
There's a tradition of telling a hive when someone in the family dies, so I guess I'm telling you: a hive has died.
I got too busy with work and the garden, I didn't take the time out to open the hive regularly and check on the girls. My desk used to face the hive, which is on the deck of our apartment near downtown Oakland. I used to monitor their comings and goings, then go back to typing, monitor, type, monitor...These days I've been bogged down with school and didn't watch them as well as I should. Finally I went out and inspected the hive--there was just a little ball of bees and no honey or brood. My guess is the queen died, and hence, the hive was doomed. That little cluster would eventually die. Lucky for me it's swarm season, and I hope to catch another. I think I'm going to relocate the hive, too, to a warmer, less windy spot.
Another piece of good news: we have two other hives--one at a farm in Pescadero, another in the backyard of some friends in Berkeley.
The photo is the hive in better days, an akebia quintata growing nearby.
Tagged as bees | 4 Comments » | Continue
The bees I caught last year are doing really well. There seems to be lot of activity, though I was worried about the queen's laying pattern last time I did an inspection (which was awhile ago--I hate bothering them). The swarm caught this spring in Alameda has died out. The queen never started laying and it all went to hell. I partially blame myself because I had this really jankity brood box with very funky frames.
The garden is in that awkward mid-summer phase where the greens are done but the tomatoes aren't quite ripe yet. Luckily there is something to eat because it's summer apple season. One of our neighbors comes in and picks them, which pisses Bill off, but I'm resigned--and even a little supportive--of the lot pillagers. Times are tight in the ghetto and the more fresh food I grow, the healthier the people around here will be. In a nod to my hippiedom, I'm growing corn and sunflowers, crops I usually don't pursue. However, I have a reason! I do like sweet corn. And, the goats will very gladly eat the corn stalks. So it's a multi-use plant. Similarly, goats like sunflower leaves and seeds.
The chickens on the deck are getting big, ...
Tagged as bees, fruit trees, rabbits, vegetables, visitors | 6 Comments » | Continue 
This upcoming Saturday has me tortured. There's the Rare Fruit Growers event about all the weird-ass fruit you can grow around here AND a Bee Symposium in Santa Rosa with the creme de la creme of the sustainable bee-keeping world: Randy Oliver, Eric Mussen, Serge Labesque, bee movies, "bee art", and more.
Here's their blurb: "In this time of global ecological challenges, the honeybee is an indicator species reflecting the enormous changes taking place in our world. Bee populations are dying and pollination ecology is deeply effected. As beekeepers, we must become stewards of the earth and change paradigms. This one-day symposium offers information and speakers with new perspectives on honeybees and native pollinators, beekeeping practices, innovative approches and ecological strategies for beekeepers."
The fruiters are meeting at 1-4; but the bee symposium goes from 9-6! Like a smart couple, Bill said he would go to the fruit, and I'll go to the bee thing. Divide and conquer, baby.
I'll let you know everything I learn at both events, assuming Bill takes good notes and my car makes in to Santa Rosa.
If anyone wants to go to either, here's the info:
Bee Symposium 2008
Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm
655 Willowside Road, Santa Rosa, CA
March 8; 9-6
$30 at door
by phone 707/824-2905
lunch for purchase on-site
OR
CRFG: Unusual Edibles in the Bay Area
El Sobrante Branch Library, 4191 Appian Way, El Sobrante, CA
March 8; 1-4pm
"Not only is the climate different in different Bay Area counties, but even within a given town there are microclimates. Our members will talk about what's growing for them and what's not. What usually works but hasn't in this wacky climate change year..."
**photo of my beehive courtesy Julie Johnson and the JSchool**
Tagged as bees | 10 Comments » | Continue 
There's a tradition of telling a hive when someone in the family dies, so I guess I'm telling you: a hive has died.
I got too busy with work and the garden, I didn't take the time out to open the hive regularly and check on the girls. My desk used to face the hive, which is on the deck of our apartment near downtown Oakland. I used to monitor their comings and goings, then go back to typing, monitor, type, monitor...These days I've been bogged down with school and didn't watch them as well as I should. Finally I went out and inspected the hive--there was just a little ball of bees and no honey or brood. My guess is the queen died, and hence, the hive was doomed. That little cluster would eventually die. Lucky for me it's swarm season, and I hope to catch another. I think I'm going to relocate the hive, too, to a warmer, less windy spot.
Another piece of good news: we have two other hives--one at a farm in Pescadero, another in the backyard of some friends in Berkeley.
The photo is the hive in better days, an akebia quintata growing nearby.
Tagged as bees | 4 Comments » | Continue