A fellow blogger and super gardener Pam Penick sent me this link from Garden Rant about a London based beekeeper wanting stories from urban beekeepers in the US for a book he is writing. His name is Luke Dixon, and if you are interested, you can contact him directly at Luke@urbanbeekeeping.co.uk.
Category Archives: education
2011 North American Beekeeping Conference and Tradeshow
I just found out that the 2011 North American Beekeeping Conference and Tradeshow is going on right now in Galveston and ends tomorrow January 8th. According to the website, it was in Orlando last year so I’m assuming it alternates cities. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they will pick Austin next year.
It is a joint effort of the American Beekeeping Federation, the American Honey Producers Association and the Canadian Honey Council. I am not familar with any of these organizations so I will have to take some time to check them out and see what they are all about.
Filed under beekeeping, education, equipment
Human Pollination
There has been a lot of discussion on what would happen to our food supply if the pollinator population (both native bees and imported honey bees) were to decline dramatically or disappear altogether. The overall consensus is that it is not a good outcome for us humans.
What I didn’t realize is that some areas of the world are already dealing with a lack of adequate pollinators for their crops. In the Maoxian county of Sichuan, China, workers now have to pollinate pear and apple trees by hand because the pollinator population has, for all intents and purposes, been destroyed.
You can read the entire Guardian article here, but is a sobering look of what could happen if fundamental changes to America’s and the world’s agricultural practices are not made in the near future.
Filed under beekeeping, education, news, pollination
MythBusters Bug Special
I’m a big fan of MythBusters, and this week they had a special dedicated to bug related myths one of which happened to be about bees. Specifically, bees lifting a laptop. Here is the video in question. For those of you viewing this at work or with small children, there are a few bad words at the very end of the video.
Now if you couldn’t tell this video was super fake by the awesome acting, the kind folks over at MythBusters tested the myth and completely busted it. However, the episode had some good information, and they even tested how much weight one bee can lift on its own (at least 81% of its body weight).
I don’t think you can watch full episodes online at Discovery.com, but you can watch part of the episode here.
Beekeeping Class in Austin on November 6th
The Travis County Master Gardeners Association is a great resource for classes and seminars around gardening, lawn care, water harvesting, and now beekeeping has been added to the mix.
Filed under beekeeping, education
More clues on Colony Collapse Disorder
A joint research team between military scientists and entomologists have identified a tag team combination of a fungus and a virus that are both present in collapsed colonies. It may not be the smoking gun, but I’m always glad to read that research continues and progress is being made.
Filed under beekeeping, education, news
Former Jayhawk wins genius grant for her work with bees
I thought this was an interesting article.
Filed under beekeeping, education
Giant Bees!
This is pretty awesome, and I’m continued to be amazed on how much more there is still to learn about these amazing creatures.
Filed under beekeeping, education
Austin Urban Beekeeping Meetup Sunday
For any Austin area folks who are beekeepers or interested in beekeeping, tomorrow is the monthly Urban Beekeeping Meetup at Emerald City Press. It starts at 2:00pm and usually lasts a few hours depend on how many people show up.
Filed under beekeeping, education
Nature Nights at the Wildflower Center
Tomorrow evening, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center will be hosting one of their Thursday Nature Nights focusing on both native and honey bees.
Filed under education
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 