The Promised Land Episode on Marla Spivak

Dr. Marla Spivak, a bee researcher at the University of Minnesota is featured on a recent episode on NPR's "The Promised Land".  Take an hour this holiday weekend, pour yourself a cup of tea and enjoy this program.  The slideshow is also well done.

Great Falls Club Activities

Brian from the Great Falls Beekeeping Club writes about two upcoming events:

On the 1^st of December (Thursday @ 7 pm) at the GF Public Library I’ll have a short introduction to beekeeping and overview followed by a Q+A period that will go as long as the audience has interest.  I plan to have honey straight off the frame for taste tests and a few other equipment displays.  Any/all current beekeepers are welcome also as it helps provide a knowledgeable audience, additional perspectives, reinforces ideas, etc!  I’m personally interested to see if we have ANY that are interested in starting to keep bees, or if the interest is in ‘hosting’ hives instead, or if it’s more just an educational opportunity, or whatever.  Who knows, maybe we’ll get a 4H club or scouts or college class show up… in which case I’ll “beg” for more beeks to show up and help, lol!

I went ahead and purchased screening rights for the movie “Vanishing of the Bees” and we’ll show that on the 8^th of December (Thursday @ 7pm) at the GF Public Library again.  The movie is pretty good and is sure to lead into some good after-movie discussions.  Agree or disagree, or somewhere in between, it does a good job of presenting a lot of information and at least establishes a common starting point for viewers.  Some is subjective, some is factual, all is interesting and most is disturbing from a beekeeping point of view.  Again, we’ll let the audience determine times by interest afterwards.  Admission is free.  If you’d like to see the commercial for it, the trailer can be viewed at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3giFDIRZIgE .

Cooking with Honey

Here is a link to Gretchen's presentation at the November Gallatin Valley Beekeeping Club meeting.  The hardy folks that braved the snow storm Saturday morning were also rewarded with warm huckleberry muffins.  Sweetened with honey of course.

Bee-a-thon this Sunday

All things pollinator will be discussed live and on-line at the 12 hour Bee-a-thon, Sunday from 10 am -10am MST.  Tune in for a little bit or the whole mess at http://www.yourgardenshow.com/bee-a-thon.

Swank Urban Bee Hive Design

Check out the latest in bee hive design from Phillips

You also need to scroll down and read the comment section on the referenced link.  

Bring on La Nina!

The girls have their insulated covers on and straw bale side walls.  Time to wax some skis!