Category — Bees

Jana Kinsman models a beekeeper’s veil by her hives at Eden Place nature center. Photo by John Greenfield.

Bike·a·Bee is connecting Chicago greenspaces, community gardens and urban farms with beehives that need a nice sunny spot to live. All of the hives are visited and cared for on a bike!

By John Greenfield
Grid Chicago
Jan 10, 2012

Excerpt:

Chicago cyclist Jana Kinsman has a honey of a plan. As a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, she did design, illustration and modeling for the 2011 and 2012 Thought You Knew pin-up calendars, featuring glamorous photos of local bicyclists. But last summer while apprenticing at an apiary (a place where bees, not apes, are kept) in Oregon, she got bitten by the bug. She decided to start Bike-a-Bee, a car-free beekeeping project back home in the Windy City.

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Video and story from Faircompanies here.

Is the City the Future for Honeybees? America’s Only Urban Beekeeping Store Owner Thinks So

Sami Grover
Treehugger
December 28, 2011

Excerpt:

We’ve already seen studies that suggest that big city bees may be healthier than their rural counterparts. And that’s something Bryon Waibel—proprietor of America’s only urban beekeeping store Her Majesty’s Secret Beekeeper—would agree with. Having seen his own urban bees thrive while his Dad’s bees in the countryside of Minnesota have struggled, Waibel is convinced that the city may be the home of the future for honeybees.

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The Honeytrap cocktail.
35ml Krupnik honey liqueur
25ml The King’s Ginger liqueur
15ml rosewater
15ml lemon juice (about half a lemon’s worth)
25ml honey

Shake with ice and serve with a twist of lemon in a martini glass.

By Ian Douglas
The Telegraph
23 Aug 2011

Excerpt:

Mikey Tomkins keeps the hive on top of the hall and organised the event as part of his work at Sustain, a charity that promotes good practice in food production. ‘We’re a charity, we promote food in huge variety. There’s the sustainable fish for London campaign, the real bread campaign, and Capital Bee [a Sustain campaign sponsored by the Mayor of London's office] is part of Capital Growth, which promotes food growing in London.

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Photograph by Ben Gardner.

Pollen Spreads in New Haven, Connecticut

By Sara Franklin
Edible Nutmeg
Summer 2011

Excerpt:

As Pollen’s business builds, Ben and Rachel continue to broaden the range of clients to whom their services are financially available. Eventually, Ben said they hope to work with low-income residents who have little or no cash to divert toward sustainability projects, but have the time and commitment necessary for project upkeep.

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Tending to the hives are carefully screened former convicts

By Marni Pyke
The Daily Herald
Aug 11, 2011

Excerpt:

The sweet smell of success is in the air at O’Hare International Airport with an unusual collaboration aimed at giving honeybees and their keepers a second chance.

Twenty-three beehives were installed on a vacant piece of property on the airport’s east side this spring.

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Coco de Mer co-founder Sam Roddick in her “bee buffet” garden in London’s Hampstead. Photo by James Ostrer.

Putting the Chic in Chicken Coop

By Jemima Sissons
Wall Street Journal
Aug 5, 2011

Excerpt:

Sam Roddick, co-founder of London boutique Coco de Mer and daughter of Body Shop founder Anita Roddick, is also passionate about the preservation of the honey bee. She is part of a new campaign entitled “Bee Lovely,” run by natural-remedy store Neal’s Yard, which aims to help address the problems facing bees and educate those who want to keep them. “I went to the Natural Beekeeping Trust course a few years ago and, soon after, started transforming my garden,” Ms. Roddick says. She has planted what she calls a “bee buffet” in her London garden, including lavender, rosemary, thyme and hawthorne, and plans to start keeping bees there soon.

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Minor and Matteson hope their findings will provide more information about which pollinators need to be encouraged in the urban landscape.

University of Illinois at Chicago
Office of Public Affairs
July 26, 2011

Excerpt:

Emily Minor, assistant professor of biological sciences at UIC, and Kevin Matteson, a visiting research assistant professor working in Minor’s laboratory, received a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how different city landscapes and neighborhoods affect the variety and quantity of insect pollinators.

They will drive a flatbed pickup carrying purple coneflowers, or Echinacea purpurea, along with flowering cucumbers and eggplants, around Chicago next summer to different residential and industrial neighborhoods.

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By Pam Gregory and Claire Waring
Flame Tree Publishing
2011

Keeping Bees is a comprehensive and straightforward guide to the rewarding pastime of beekeeping.

Following an overview of the impact of bees and honey throughout human history, the book delves into an
explanation of the inner workings and social structure of a bee colony within a hive – knowledge that is key to becoming a successful beekeeper. Then learn about all the essential equipment and practices required to begin your exciting journey into the world of beekeeping.

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An Ad That Has London Buzzing.

The winter of 2009-2010 proved disastrous for registered beehives in London

News Release from: LIDA
21/06/2011

Excerpt:

Award-winning creative agency LIDA, part of M&C Saatchi, has redesigned original artwork by cult artist Magnus Muhr to highlight the plight of London’s bees. The eye-catching campaign images use dead bees and simple illustrative techniques to convey the situation of London’s bee population. These visuals will take the form of striking billboards appearing across the London Underground network from Friday June 17 and humorous video clips with a serious message, which are hoped to go viral across the internet.

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Quebec’s Animal Health Protection Act allows urban beekeeping under certain conditions.

By Stephanie O Hanley
Open File
June 15, 2011

Excerpt:

Beekeepers say people don’t understand bees and confuse docile honeybees with aggressive wasps and hornets.

“When you say ‘bee’ it equals stinging, anaphylactic shock and death” says Branislav Babic, who founded the McGill Apiculture Association in 2007.

“They [honeybees] don’t sting just for nothing,” says Babic. “You have to step on it or poke around a hive entrance for a bee to sting you.”

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‘Bees Please’ box is in harmony with its surroundings in Vancouver BC

By Chloe Bennett Design
May 2011

From her blog:

Life has been busy since the last post. This April, we finally installed the ‘Bees Please’ Mason Bee Box in the roundabout at Yew & 6th in Kitsilano. The design process was fast and furious, as we raced to meet Mother Nature’s deadline (mason bees emerge from their cocoons late March / April). Thanks to Doug Patterson, Landscape Architecture professor at UBC, for his support and guidance.

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Nokia – HK Honey from The Silentlights on Vimeo.

Hong Kong honey

Directed by Kiku Ohe.
Produced by Exit Films as part of Nokia’s E7 Success Redefined campaign.
(Brilliant video. Mike)

Hong Kong is home to more than 7 million people. Amongst the high rise apartments, product designer Michael Leung founder of HK Honey, has created his own space bringing nature back into the metropolis one box at a time.

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Documentary film in theatres spring 2011

“Of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees.”

What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, director of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN. Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.

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Minuscule – The private lives of insects – more than 80 in the series

By Hélène Giraud, Thomas Szabo
Produced by Phillipe Delarue

From Wikipedia

Minuscule is a growing collection of short animations that follow the day-to-day existence of anthropomorphic insects. The characters are modelled on computer in 3D and are then set against real scenery. Each animation has a short, self-contained and often humorous storyline. The audio is a combination of genuine insect and ambient recordings, and sound effects such as car or helicopter or aircraft engines, synthesized buzzings etc.

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David Selig of Red Hook, Brooklyn, a restaurant owner and amateur beekeeper, was disappointed that instead of honey his bees had produced a red concoction more reminiscent of maraschino cherries, or of cough syrup. Photo by Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times.

The Mystery of the Red Bees of Red Hook

By Susan Dominus
New York Times
November 29, 2010

Excerpt:

Where there should have been a touch of gentle amber showing through the membrane of their honey stomachs was instead a garish bright red. The honeycombs, too, were an alarming shade of Robitussin.

“I thought maybe it was coming from some kind of weird tree, maybe a sumac,” said Ms. Mayo, who tends seven hives for Added Value, an education nonprofit in Red Hook. “We were at a loss.”

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Bees have been around for 110 million years or so, but it was only a couple of thousand years ago that we started to grasp their potential for helping humanity Photo: Getty

Middle class guilt about the decline of the countryside is fuelling a boom in amateur beekeepers, with a doubling in the number of hives over the last couple of years.

By Louise Gray,
Environment Correspondent, The Telegraph
21 Nov. 2010

Excerpt:

The decline of the honey bee has dominated headlines for the last few years. Hives were hit by a strange condition known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) and numbers were estimated to have halved in 20 years.

Conservationists warned that without the honey bee to pollinate trees and plants the countryside suffers and even food security may be in danger.

The warnings have had such an effect that the number of people keeping bees has doubled since 2007 and most are keeping more hives.

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Video by Rebecca Gerendasy of Cooking Up a Story

Cooking Up a Story (CUpS) is an online television series (and blog) about people, food, and sustainable living.

Excerpt:

The “Tour De Hive” neighborhood tour, a spinoff of the Portland’s popular Tour de Coop that provided public tours of urban chicken coops. Similiarly, the Tour de Hive offers for those who wish to participate in this free event, the opportunity to see working bee hives in a cluster of Portland neighborhoods, and to ask questions of their hosts to learn more about the bees, and urban beekeeping opportunities.

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First issue free to download until the end of September

The inaugural issue of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD) is now online. The first issue of this international, peer-reviewed journal of applied research and policy analysis is open and available free to the public until the end of September.

JAFSCD is an international, online, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on agriculture and food systems and bridges the interests of development professionals (including activist farmers and business people), educators, consultants, and the academic community.

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The bees’ honey is largely organic because pesticide use has been banned in Tokyo city parks and gardens. Photo: by Chris Hondros

It’s effective in changing people’s mindsets

(AFP)
21 July 2010

TOKYO — Tokyo’s Ginza district is usually abuzz with shoppers and office workers, but high above its skyscrapers nature-lovers have created a home for real busy bees — the ones that make honey.

It’s part of a project to bring a slice of natural life back to the centre of the world’s largest urban sprawl, a cityscape home to more than 30 million people that stretches far beyond the horizon.

Eleven storeys above the heart of the Tokyo concrete jungle — with its beehive office partitions and swarms of suit-clad worker-bees — enthusiasts have stacked up beehives dripping with golden honey.

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800 bee colonies went loose

by Rob Olson and Mike Durkin
Fox 9
May 24

LAKEVILLE, Minn. – A truck hauling bees was involved in a multiple-vehicle crash Monday morning on Interstate 35 in Lakeville, Minnesota, killing one person.

Two semi trucks, one carrying bees, and two cars crashed on northbound Interstate 35 at County Road 70 around 11:30 a.m. Minnesota State Patrol spokesman Lt. Eric Roeske confirmed one person is dead and one person. Kari J. Rasmussen, 24, was airlifted to a nearby hospital — where she is in critical condition.

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