Category Archives: Honeybees

WIRED Magazine

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WIRED Magazine is buzzing with informational articles on Honeybees.

This post was just starting out as a collection of links to articles that I’ve been seeing in various magazines and on various websites. One of those magazines is WIRED. If you are not familiar, it is a magazine (and website) chuck full of information on today’s latest cutting edge technology and it’s impact on the world and our daily lives. Locally produced in San Francisco!

This month’s mag has an article on Honey Counterfeiters and individuals responsible for tracking and identifying falsely labeled honey – BIG business evidently! The article is titled, “The Hive Minder: Pollen Detective Tracks Down Honey Counterfeiters”. Unfortunately they have not released it on their site – you’ll have to pick up the mag as of this post. However, and what I really wanted to get to with this post, is the broad collection of articles on honeybees they do have to read. Below is a list with links. We found them all very interesting and worth highlighting for our followers (oldest to newest):

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/epa-clothianidin-controversy/

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/10/honeybee-orchestra/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/colony-collapse-lives/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/flowers-spread-bee-viruses/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/bees-insects-personality/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/neonicotinoids-bee-collapse/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/neonicotinoids-colony-collapse/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/neonicotinoids-gardens/

A lot of these focus on the plight of the honeybee and their decline over the past few years. Others focus on interesting facets of honeybees – who knew they might have personalities!? As we stated at the beginning of this BLOG, information is power, so we appreciate the thorough coverage that WIRED magazine has been providing it’s readers.

Are you a fan of WIRED Magazine? Is there another informational resource you think is equally as good? If so, let us know as we like spreading the “good word” on Honeybees!

Hungry Honeybees

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For those who have never seen a honeybee eat!

This short video was taken right after a harvest in the East Bay. There were a few drops of honey on a pan that Mike left out for the bees to eat up. And they definitely did. The most interesting part (IMHO) is watching them use their proboscis to lick/suck up the honey. Turns out there are a lot of critters out there that have them!!! Check out the link above.

Good buzzing audio on this too!

Enjoy!

Feel the BUZZ!

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Attune Foods, The Bee Ranchers and Whole Foods / Napa all team-up to bring better honeybee awareness to consumers. 1 out of 3 bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators!

The Bee Ranchers was recently contacted by Dawn Raggio of Attune Foods about a project they were working on with Whole Foods in Napa. After inquiring about our beehives and services, Dawn agreed to purchase one of our hives for the “Share the BUZZ” display and have it raffled off at the store.

“This is a local tie-in with Attune and Pacific Foods at the Napa Whole Foods. With the bee population decreasing, we are drawing awareness to it as much as possible in the region”.

We at The Bee Ranchers think the display looked fantastic (we especially liked the fun floor graphics) and we really appreciate the support of Attune Foods. Whenever, whatever, wherever, however, if it is in support of our local honeybee populations, we’ll try and help!

Did you happen to see the display at Whole Foods? If so, tell us what you thought! If you won the hive in the raffle, drop us a line and let us know, we’d love to hear from you.

 

Michelin Rated Honeybees

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A look at French Laundry’s inspiring organic garden and Honeybees in Yountville, California.

Brand Foreman here. I’ll start this blog entry by stating that I love my day job! I’ve been fortunate enough to be working on a design project up in Rutherford, CA in the heart of Napa Valley. So recently I’ve been up in the area taking note of popular destinations in the region. In my note and photo taking wanderings I stumbled into The French Laundry. Of course I had heard of it (if you have not check the link) but I really had no idea exactly where it was. Wandering the main drag of Yountville found me walking right past it.

No I did not drop in for a bite to eat, but I did wander across the street to take a look at their organic gardens. What struck me as most interesting about them is that these are not gated or barb wired off to the public. They are actually set up as if to invite you to walk amongst them – and I did! So inspiring to check out and to think that the fruits and vegetables from these gardens go directly onto the plates of a 3 Star Michelin rated restaurant.

And who do we owe a great deal of thanks and respect to for this wonderful organic produce? Sure Tucker Taylor and Aaron Keefer (< whom I chatted with while there – a friendly lad) are the gardeners responsible for taking care of this wonderful plot of productive soil. Sure the chickens are cool, they “cluck” and probably supply some good fertilizer. What caught my eye and that I think deserve a lot of the culinary accolades are the Honeybees from their onsite bee hives.

Just think, no honeybees, no organic produce! What a bland tasting world would that be like? I think Thomas Keller just got chills up his spine! Honeybees clearly play a critical role in what makes French Laundry, French Laundry.

Have you dined at French Laundry or seen their gardens? Tells us about it, Foie Gras and all!

Humboldt Honeybee Heroes

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Marla Spivak and Brian Gross doing their part for honeybees.

Hey folks, Brand Foreman here. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must state that I am a graduate of Humboldt State University (’89 – ’94 / Art Major w/Speech Comm Minor) and proud of it. And yes if you do your math right, I was on the (5) year plan. I received my Alumni Magazine recently and was pleased to find Marla (Class of ’78) and Brian (Instructor of Economics) written up.

Humboldt State is a fantastic Liberal Arts school located in Northern California that churns out very passionate students and retains phenomenal instructors. I thought it might be nice to share their honeybee focused write-ups with you all. Enjoy.

These are obviously courtesy of HUMBOLDT, THE MAGAZINE OF HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY / SPRING 2012

Click on images to enlarge.

An additional link to information on Marla Spivak can be found here:

The Hive Diary / PART 3

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Our Bees have been busy!

Mike came over to our house in the East Bay last week to check in on the hive. I made sure that I was there to capture the moment. I wasn’t sure what kind of lens I should shoot with thinking my telephoto might be good from a distance. Mike cautiously assured me that I would not need that. I’m happy to report that he was right. His observation of many of his hives have been that the bees have pretty mellow so far (you’ll note he is not wearing gloves during this check).

Mike took off the lid of the hive which show cased some “burr comb”. This is comb the honeybees have made between or on top of the frames. In order to maintain the hive properly this “burr comb” needs to be removed – typically scraped off with a special tool. If you are lucky, there will be some honey in it to taste.

Mike checked the frames and said the hive was very healthy and looked to be productive. He added a second Brood Chamber on top and went on his way. If all goes according to plan, Mike thinks we may extract some honey in August.

I really enjoyed seeing the inner workings of an active hive first hand.

Bees “Across the Pond”

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The Honey Club is a great organization located in the UK.

When first getting involved with The Bee Ranchers I did a lot of research on other companies and organizations that were similarly looking to help the honeybee population. Of course I started really looking locally/regionally. In doing so, it was not too difficult to stumble upon other organizations outside our region, across the United States and even within other countries and different continents.

One in particular that caught my eye was The Honey Club. An organization that summarizes it’s agenda as follows:

The Honey Club is a social enterprise that aims to create the biggest bee-friendly network in the world, starting with our local community in Kings Cross, London. Our mission is to save bees, learn more and give back.

We like the sound of that and based upon their blog, looks like they are up to some interesting things over there – plus they are based out of a kick-arse design firm Wolff Olins. Give them 5 minutes of your time and learn how they are making a sincere effort to better support honeybees “across the pond”.

http://honeyclub.org/about

We’ll be sending them a hello and thanks for their efforts which in turn, will hopefully show them that their message and network is growing globally!

A great event!

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Mike Vigo, Ranch Foreman, gives a few observations on the recent showing of “Queen of the Sun, What are the Bees Telling us?” in Alameda last week.

It was a great turnout! Judging by the amount of movie goers who showed up, the plight of the honeybee is important to many people throughout Alameda and the East Bay.

A lot of people asked how they could support honeybees? You can help out the honeybee in many ways; by planting “bee friendly” vegetation, supporting your local beekeeper by buying local honey and having a backyard hive! Here is a great resource for identifying the right plants for a bee friendly garden:

Urban Bee Gardens

There is always a “silver lining, in every dark cloud”. The recent malaise of the honeybee has energized a ton of research and worked to help better understand why the bees are disappearing and that is a positive step forward.

Thanks to all who turned out to support this event sponsored by Alameda Marketplace. It was a pleasure to meet all the folks I spoke with that night and it was great to see Alameda’s supportive, honeybee loving Community!

Did you make the movie night? Did you enjoy the event? Tell us what you thought!

For more information on the movie, click HERE!