Weekly 101 (9/2/11)

First, a message from Meg Paska

Hey Everyone!

Happy Friday! I'm very glad to report that everyone at Newton Farm was kept safe from the destructive, deadly flooding in Greene County caused by Irene this week. There was quite a bit of flooding at the farm but Lynn, Cindy and Co were able to salvage a ton of produce. Beyond that, we are fortunate that our farm is situated on very well drained soil so we expect many of the root crops to be just fine.

I am writing because I just received a call from Lynn that she will be back in BK with a HUGE haul of produce that we will need to sell ASAP! Please come by the Renegade CSA to purchase some and support the farm. We will be on N11th street near Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, situated behind The Bedford (a restaurant and bar that serves our produce). We'll be out on the stoop drinking wine and marveling at how great it is to be alive!

We will also have with us:
- LOADS of heirloom tomatoes
- wonderful, crisp cucumbers
- tender collards
- massive bins of fresh herbs
- heirloom squash
- sweet corn
- potatoes
- beans
- soybean free, organic eggs

If you purchase any of our $20 CSA bags in the past and would like to pick one up tonight, bring a tote bag with you and we will honor that arrangement. It will include a half dozen eggs, and an assortment of greens, veggies and herbs.

It is also worth noting that there are many other farms in the area that were far less fortunate than we were. Please consider checking out this link on how you can help farmers and residents effected by the devastation Irene caused. Clothing, supplies, non-perishable food and monetary donations are all needed to help the families and businesses that have lost everything because of the flooding this week. We will have a box for clothing and non-perishable donations that will be dropped off by our farmers upon our return to the farm.

Thank you for your time and we hope to see many of you this evening!

Lynn is great, and so is Newton farm, so you should come out TONIGHT, say 'Hi!' and support local, healthy, sustainable, organic agriculture and beekeeping. Upstate New York took all the shit from Irene that we didn't, so come and lend a hand!


If you can't make it tonight, you should come out to the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm tomorrow for a FREE public hive inspection. The bees survived Irene, and so I'm going to be doing my first post-hurricane inspection, making sure that everyone is healthy, happy, and productive. I'll also be moving the hives back to their regular stands, so I could use some help lifting because I am a giant weakling.

Feel free to bring your own beekeeping gear and actively participate in the inspection. I love hosting guest beekeepers of all ages and experiences!

If you can, you should plan to stick around and help out at the farm after the inspection! They got hit pretty hard by Irene and could use all the hands they can get to help clean up and get the farm productive again. Hope to see you there!

P.S. DID I MENTION THAT IT'S FREE!?

It's all going down at the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm, located at 3-49 Halleck St, Brooklyn, 11231, and I'll be starting the inspection at 11AM.

To get there by Subway:

A/C/F train to Jay Street/Borough Hall. Exit the station and walk west to Boerum Place and Joralemon Street. Take the B61 bus going towards Red Hook. Exit the bus at the IKEA store, and the farm is across the street.
F/G to Smith and 9th Street. Exit the station to the rear of the train (there is only one exit in this station). Transfer to the B77 (right in front of the station) Take the B77 to Van Dyke and Dwight street. You'll find yourself in front of the Liberty Heights Taproom. Take a left crossing Dwight Street and proceed up Van Dyke to Red Hook Community Farm (one block walk, from the bus stop you can actually see the farm at the end of the street).

Finally, the NYC Beekeepers Association is hosting a free beekeeping talk on Tuesday, September 6th.

Welcome back bee lovers!

Join the NYCBA on September 6th at the usual place at 7PM. This month's speaker is NYPD's beekeeper, Tony "Bees" Planakis. Tony will regale us with his tellings of life as NYPD's beekeeper. From the 1970's when Tony started keeping bees with his father in Connecticut after the two of them spent a summer in Crete learning about beekeeping, which was a family tradition for the Planakis clan. Tony kept up with the bees as a teenager, and after a stint in the army, joined the NYPD and continued to work bees, large and small scale, until the present day. Most recently Tony has enjoyed some high profile sting operations in Chinatown and Little Italy, where he has captured swarms from mailboxes and lampposts, sometimes with some help from various NYCBA regulars.

Also, Honeydrop (www.Honeydrop.com) will be providing honey based beverages for everybody, so, come thirsty and drink up.

One and all always welcome in our urban hive.

Tuesday, September 6th
7pm-9pm
Seafarers & International House
123 East 15th Street

I probably won't be able to make it since I have to pick up my CSA, but it should be a really interesting talk. Tony was the beekeeper who rescued the bees from the damaged colony in Fort Greene Park, as recently featured in the NY Times.

Also, it's free. Hooray!

Hive Check: Week 8

Ah, the weekly hive check. Easy to do, but sometimes a pain to write about, especially when you've got exciting (non-computer) things to do, like having hardcore beekeeping adventures.

In addition to my apprentice Emily, I was also accompanied by a Who's Who of treatment free beekeepers from all over the nation. We were joined by Kirk Anderson, founding member of the Backwards Beekeepers Club in LA, Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries, Meg Paska of Brooklyn Homesteader, Chase Emmons from the Brooklyn Grange, PLUS Alex Brown, a photographer working with Meg, and Theadora, a friend of Emily's who we pressed into photographic service. It's the largest group of people I've ever had on the roof and it was a blast.

The gang, left to right:
Sam Comfort, Kirk Anderson, Meg Paska, Me, Chase Emmons, Alex Brown

Bees, it would seem, like honey.

Hive #1 and their new queen (Esmeralda) continues to do very well. The workers are drawing out a fair amount of comb in the recently added deep and the queen has started to lay in the cells. There is already a fair amount of nectar/syrup being stored in the newly drawn frames, and there continues to be a large amount (>6 frames) of solid brood in the bottom hive body.

Smoking up with the triangle smoker.

Pop, pop.

*yoink*

Havin' a looko-seeo with KirkoBeeo.

Both hives are still being fed with sugar syrup, which isn't great, but they got off to a late start this year and will need to be fed until they have drawn out enough comb to store all the honey and pollen they'll need to make it through the coming winter. Once they have two full deeps of comb drawn out, they'll come off of the artificial stuff, hopefully forever.

The light, it burns.

I sure am white.

As I mentioned last week, I've gotten the idea that the poor brood pattern in Hive #2 may be the result of a shortage of the high quality protein needed to produce royal jelly. Worker brood is fed royal jelly for the first three days of its larval stage, so to maintain a large broodnest, a huge amount of pollen is required.

Emily removing the ratchet straps holding the hive in place.

OH LOOK! BRACE COMB!  MY FAVOURITE!

Clean and jerk.

Looking at the hive with Sam and Kirk, we saw that there were many eggs laid in a good solid pattern, but that a lot of the brood was being lost before it reached maturity, resulting in the scattershot pattern of capped brood that I've been seeing. While Kirk suggested that I just replace the queen, Sam thought that brood may have been suffering from one of the low grade brood ailments, such as chalkbrood, sacbrood, or european foulbrood (EFB).

So friendly!

We didn't see any of the larval or pupal 'mummies' which are indicative of chalkbrood in or around the hive, but we did see a couple of the dying (yellowing) larvae which Sam refers to as "snotbrood". We didn't see a large amount of dead brood in the cells, which is both good and bad. We know that the brood is dying before it reaches maturity (which is bad), but the lack of dead brood within the hive tells us that the bees are exhibiting good hygienic behavior and attempting to remove potential sources of contagion quickly and efficiently (which is good.)

I feel like Kirk was somewhat surprised by the calmness of the bees.
LA bees like to riot or something.

TAG TEAM!

There are two main courses of action for treating pretty much all the brood diseases, other than American Foul Brood (AFB.) The first is to requeen, the idea being that the current population of the hive is genetically weak and/or susceptible to disease. By requeening, you effectively change the genetic makeup of the population, hopefully for the better. Unfortunately, it can be a bit of a crap shoot. The new queen may be no better than the old one, or worse.

Theadora getting artsy.

The other main option is to fortify the hive with better food. Well fed bees and brood are less susceptible to disease. The hive is already getting plenty of carbs in the form of sugar syrup, so a bit of added protein seems like the way to go.

Luckily, I have a 5lb bag of fresh pollen from Brushy Mountain in my fridge. Let's see if it makes a difference!

Put the lime in coconut.

Time to bulk up, little dudettes.

The reaction of the bees:
OM NOM NOM!

P.S. Photos from this inspection were taken by Theadora Tolkin, our resident singer/songwriter/sea squirt biologist. Every beekeeper should have one!

Weekly 101 (7/5/11)

It's a busy time in Beekeeping! There are 5 great events going on this week!

In lieu of my regular hive inspection, I offer you this.  Same location, more convenient time!

Calling all beekeepers and wanna-bees! We've got an exciting weekend of bee-ness coming up in early July. Kirk Anderson from the Backwards Beekeepers (Los Angeles) is coming to NYC to wax philosophical about treatment-free beekeeping and letting bees be bees. These are two aspects of the method of apiary management that he and his club practice known as "Backwards Beekeeping." I'm a big fan of Kirk's and I'm sure you will be too. Check out this video to see him in action in Los Angeles!

Joining us for a 1PM lecture at Brooklyn Brainery on Saturday, July 9th, will be Sam Comfort from Anarchy Apiaries in the Hudson Valley. After the talk, we'll walk over to Added Value's Red Hook Community Farm around 3:30 for some hive inspections and demos. Tim O'Neal from Borough Bees will also be there as he has been kind enough to let us take a look at some of his hives!

On Sunday , July 10th, Kirk and I will be over at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm for a 2pm workshop on ways to propagate bees naturally and a Q&A session on Backwards Beekeeping. Eagle St will be hosting an Ice Cream Social Fundraiser after, and then the Honeysuckle Rosies will be hosting another Bees N' Beers at 4PM in Greenpoint to allow all the beekeepers who attended to talk shop and share ideas (and of course drink some beerskis in the process!)

Best of all, the events are free. So come out, open up your mind and get ready to let the bees get in yr brains! :)

Yup... This is going to be good. I am going to be at all four events (Brainery, Red Hook, Eagle Street, and Bees N' Beers) so come out, say hi, and learn a metric shit-ton about alternative beekeeping practices.

While my own personal beekeeping style is somewhat more conservative than that practiced by Misters Anderson and Comfort, I am seriously looking forward to learning about their techniques and picking their brains.


Finally, the NYC Beekeeping Group is offering a small group hive inspection this Saturday, July 9th, from 9-Noon:

Been waiting to get a taste of hands-on beekeeping?

Been to class and ready to experience the real thing, but no hives of your own?

Hives of your own, but got questions and want the benefit of an experienced eye?


Here's an opportunity to join us for a guided inspection of a Community Apiary -

We have a limited number of open spots for this session.

Those waitlisted will have priority for the next one.


Please email with any questions: nycbeekeeping@gmail.com

Thanks!

As always with the NYC Beekeeping Group, the event is free and is likely to be very enlightening!

Weekly 101 (6/13/11)

Bees + Drinking = Love

Meg Paska of BrooklynHomesteader.com is putting together another one of her Beekeeping Gab n' Guzzles:

The next Beekeeping Gab 'n Guzzle hosted by The Honeysuckle Rosies will be at Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg (Metropolitan and Havemeyer) this coming Thursday at 7 p.m. in the back garden. Bring tales of swarm catching and requeening! Bring pictures of your rooftop apiaries! Or just bring yourself! All are welcome, new-bees and wanna-bees, or seasoned beekeepers!

We can't wait to see you all! BZZZZZZ!

It's goin' down at Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg Brooklyn on Thursday the 16th, starting at 7PM. Come and talk shop with us!


If you want something a bit more hands-on, I'll be at the Added Value Farm in Red Hook this Saturday, giving another one of my FREE Public Hive Inspections!

Starting at 11, I will go through a basic inspection for each hive, starting with a lesson on lighting a smoker, moving on to visual inspections of the comb and a short talk on what to keep your eye out for (with examples!), and finishing up with another short talk on what we should expect to see in the next inspection.

DID I MENTION THAT IT'S FREE!?

It's all going down at the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm, located at 3-49 Halleck St, Brooklyn, 11231.

To get there by Subway:

A/C/F train to Jay Street/Borough Hall. Exit the station and walk west to Boerum Place and Joralemon Street. Take the B61 bus going towards Red Hook. Exit the bus at the IKEA store, and the farm is across the street.
F/G to Smith and 9th Street. Exit the station to the rear of the train (there is only one exit in this station). Transfer to the B77 (right in front of the station) Take the B77 to Van Dyke and Dwight street. You'll find yourself in front of the Liberty Heights Taproom. Take a left crossing Dwight Street and proceed up Van Dyke to Red Hook Community Farm (one block walk, from the bus stop you can actually see the farm at the end of the street).

This event is taking place during the Farm's open volunteer hours, so anyone who comes out should consider sticking around for a while after the inspection to help out! I'll be sticking around for a while to answer any lingering questions and hang!

If you ARE feeling brave and want to help out, consider wearing light colored long pants and a collared shirt. I've got an extra veil I can lend out to particularly courageous volunteers!

Special thanks to Added Value for hosting this, and future, FREE PUBLIC HIVE INSPECTIONS! They're doing great work, and are always looking for volunteers. If you'd like to help them out, check out their website here!

Surprise! You're a beekeeper

Tim clocks in at over a dozen years experience as a beekeeper, so he asked me to be the one to write about what’s surprising and strange to a first-timer to help out anyone who’s in my shoes or considering getting started.

The first thing that surprised me was how easy this is. For highly evolved eusocial organisms composed of tens of thousands of venomous individuals, it’s not too difficult to figure out what a bee colony wants and needs. Sure, I have Tim around to do a lot of the heavy lifting (literally, in the case of getting packing pallets up to the roof to keep the hives off the hot rooftop surface). But it turns out getting started is only as complicated as you want it to be.

That wasn't so hard.

Worried about time and money? Pshaw. You can get yourself set up for about $300 in the first year and not much at all in years after if things go well. And check this: these pets feed themselves. You’ll only need to spend 20 minutes every two weeks inspecting your hives once they get going.

Equipment catalogs like Brushy Mountain and BetterBee make it simple to order as much or as little gear as suits you. Think you’ll need Velcro bands to keep your pant legs tight around the ankles? They’ll hook you up for just $3.95! Or if you prefer the minimalist or DIY approach, check out the so-called Backwards Beekeepers of LA or Anarchy Apiaries in the Northeast.

Local beekeeping associations (find yours here) offer classes and lectures, and pair up newbies with mentors. Visit their websites and you might even find a message board with people sympathetic to the cause offering up their backyards or rooftops—no small wonder, if your primary hurdle to getting started is space. As for me, I’m forever indebted to Jim and Liane of the NYC Beekeeping Group for the courses they’ve provided to me and literally thousands of my fellow Gothamists, free of charge.

Don’t forget to check out the lit. Tim’s got a great list of print and online resources to get you up to speed, although if you only get one thing, make it The Beekeeper’s Handbook. That is, until next year when the book by our friend Meg Paska (aka the Brooklyn Homesteader)—the book first ever to specifically address urban beekeeping—will make its debut.

From The Beekeeper's Handbook. Developmental stage charts, and diagnostic dissection diagrams? Yeah, you want it.

Most of all remember that beekeepers, like the little bugs they care for, are social beings. If you haven’t connected to people in your area who can help you out, you’re not trying.

Next in the series will be things that surprised me about hive inspections themselves. In the meantime, what concerns do you have about getting started? Or if you too are new to the game, what have you experienced that you weren’t expecting?

P.S. Here's a preview of the other rooftop project we've got cooking. They're not gonna be on my windowsill much longer...

Weekly 101 (6/3/11)

Bees! You can meet them this Sunday! At the Eagle St. Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint!

2 PM - 3 PM

Beekeeping with Brooklyn Homesteader

Join Megan Paska of BrooklynHomesteader as she discusses the start up, set up and spring activity of our three beehives. Whether you're a beeginner (oh yes we did) or a beekeeper with Q's for our Miss Meg, you'll get 'em answered

It's free, and you can check out their greenmarket while you're there! Follow the link for more details!

Rooftopfarms.org


On Tuesday, the NYC Beekeepers Association is hosting one of their monthly lectures:

Beekeeping: Local and Global

NYCBA will have double the fun on Tuesday, June 7, when Peace Corps beekeepers Dan Carr and Lebohang Moore share their international beekeeping experience.

Dan Carr is a beekeeper at Stone Barns, an 80-acre nonprofit farm and education center located in Pocantico Hills, New York, 25 miles north of Manhattan.

Dan is a Colorado native and holds a bachelor's degree in history and political science from the University of Montana. After working on a Scottish dairy farm through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program, Dan spent three years in Malawi as an Agriculture/Environment Peace Corps volunteer. While in Malawi, he fell in love with keeping bees and confirmed the notion that he wanted to spend the rest of his life working the land. Dan will share photos from his Malawi beekeeping days, discuss how he cares for the bees and livestock at Stone Barns, and reveal what it's like working with a cool chef and environmentalist (we are fans of both Dan's, Carr and Barber).

We are also pleased to welcome Lebohang Moore, a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College (B.F.A., Dance Performance) who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia and Peru. He now works in Zambia with Tiny Tim and Friends, an NGO that supports HIV-positive children through organic farming and an animal husbandry training program. Lebohang will talk to us about beekeeping in Bolivia and Zambia, including different markets, honey harvest methods, and use of traditional and new hives.


*Help sustain the NYCBA hive by renewing your annual membership. This event is $5 for non-members.*

Tuesday, June 7th
7pm-9pm
Seafarers & International House
123 East 15th Street

$5? International Beekeeping? Totally worth it!


As for me, I'll be at the Added Value Farm in Red Hook this Saturday, giving another one of my FREE Public Hive Inspections!

Starting at 11, I will go through a basic inspection for each hive, starting with a lesson on lighting a smoker, moving on to visual inspections of the comb and a short talk on what to keep your eye out for (with examples!), and finishing up with another short talk on what we should expect to see in the next inspection.

DID I MENTION THAT IT'S FREE!?

It's all going down at the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm, located at 3-49 Halleck St, Brooklyn, 11231.

To get there by Subway:

A/C/F train to Jay Street/Borough Hall. Exit the station and walk west to Boerum Place and Joralemon Street. Take the B61 bus going towards Red Hook. Exit the bus at the IKEA store, and the farm is across the street.
F/G to Smith and 9th Street. Exit the station to the rear of the train (there is only one exit in this station). Transfer to the B77 (right in front of the station) Take the B77 to Van Dyke and Dwight street. You'll find yourself in front of the Liberty Heights Taproom. Take a left crossing Dwight Street and proceed up Van Dyke to Red Hook Community Farm (one block walk, from the bus stop you can actually see the farm at the end of the street).

This event is taking place during the Farm's open volunteer hours, so anyone who comes out should consider sticking around for a while after the inspection to help out! I'll be sticking around for a while to answer any lingering questions and hang!

If you ARE feeling brave and want to help out, consider wearing light colored long pants and a collared shirt. I've got an extra veil I can lend out to particularly courageous volunteers!

Special thanks to Added Value for hosting this, and future, FREE PUBLIC HIVE INSPECTIONS! They're doing great work, and are always looking for volunteers. If you'd like to help them out, check out their website here!