Gift from the Frankenhive
27 AugWe harvested honey from the monster this weekend. And 35 pounds of it too, which stretched our tiny kitchen to its limits. Every ladle, crock and strainer was entirely occupied by the operation.
Here are a few photos from the sticky endeavor.
Silence of the Honeybees
30 JulAs we speak PBS is airing a documentary about colony collapse disorder, “Silence of the Honeybees.”
If you missed it, watch it online at PBS.org.
The Pollen Files: Fernbush
14 JulFernbush, Chamaebatiaria millefolium, is hardly a Prom queen knock-out. In fact, its tiny white flowers are barely noticeable.
But when the high heat of summer hits us full force in Albuquerque, it’s the low-water fernbush that nurtures us through. After the lavender bloom but before the aster and solidago flush with late summer goodies, it’s the delicate and sweet-eyed fernbush that quietly offers sustenance for our hungry pollinators.
My girls are all over it like teenagers desperate for a date, oblivious to me the camera-wielding parent oh-so-annoying in my insistence that Prom be fully documented for posterity.
Gathering pollen from the fernbush
Mmm... summertime munchies
Scene @ NM Summer Beekeeping Seminar
11 JulA great crowd and plenty of learning at today’s summer seminar “Nectar for Your Noggin” organized by the New Mexico Beekeepers Association. Personally, I’m still assimilating the intellectual goodies and promise to post a recap soon.
Until then, here’s a few photos from the event.
Et aussi, the slides from my newbeek presentation: “Oh Sweet Confusion: What I Learned My First Year Keeping Bees”
Oh Sweet Confusion by Chantal Foster is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at mistressbeek.com.
Yours truly @ New Mexico Beekeepers Meeting tomorrow
10 JulAll the drama of a first year beekeeper can be yours at tomorrow’s gathering of the New Mexico Beekeepers Association.
I’m on deck @ 9am to share “Tales of a Beginning Beekeeper” which is really code for Chaos and Utter Confusion. But I promise to share plenty of photos and video from the past year’s dramatic journey into the land of urban beekeeping.
More information
New Mexico State Beekeepers Association — Summer Seminar
- July 11, 2009
- 9a.m. – 4:30pm (registration starts at 8am)
- Visiting guest Serge Labesque- “Chemical Free Bees” from northern California, is keynote speaker. The morning session will include round-robins with local NM beekeepers.
Rio West Community Church
6751 Pasilla Rd, NE
Rio Rancho, NM 87144
The Day of the Swarm
30 JunThis beekeeping thing is endlessly cryptic.
Take yesterday, for example, when bees from the Ann Hive swarmed TWICE and yet due to a clipped queen, remain stuck in our backyard.
Alex tells the dramatic tale of exodus and return…
The Summer Nectar Series
21 JunJust before the heat of summer in Albuquerque, lavender and blue borage flow like a speakeasy still.
Get a bee-friendly planting guide for your area
Bee Sting: You gotta know when to fold ’em
16 JunMy first minute in the hive, I was stung.
It’s an otherwise innocuous day, the first after a long string of late nights launching this new website. The first day in weeks I’ve had a chance to nurture myself or my hives. But something wasn’t right in the Ann Hive.
Perhaps they’re crowded or hot or moody, but whatever they are it’s not desirous of my presence in their lives today. First the sting, then head-butting, and finally a low threatening hum.
And that’s when I walked away.
So instead of an update on the quite busy Ann Hive, a new colony this year from a B. Weaver nucleus, all I’ve got is this photo. It’s a tarantula hawk wasp, the beautiful blue NM state insect, capturing a wolf spider on my back porch. And if it’s stings we’re worried about, I ended up on the right side of my backyard bargain as the hawk wasp has one of the nastiest stings known to man.
Wasp vs. Spider
Where the wild bees grow
9 JunJust past the cluster of roadrunners and lizards, not far from the Rio Grande bisecting Albuquerque, there’s a wild hive of honeybees.
The girls work quietly in an old cottonwood along the bosque bike trail near Paseo del Norte.
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Photo by Joy Godfrey
mistress beek 
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