Hands off Bees in the Local News

Our local news blog, PhinneyWood, which covers the Greenwood and Phinney Ridge neighborhoods of Seattle (and nearby areas), just posted an article about Trish's backyard beekeeping and the hives she builds.

Thanks to Sarah who wrote the article, Doree who manages the blog, and everyone who is visiting the blog (and our Facebook page) as a result of reading the article!

Growing Goji Berries

I did a bit more reading about goji berries and bees, and I started thinking that the goji berry plants could be a bee-friendly addition to our yard. Plus, the health benefits of goji honey would be good for honeybees as well as people.

I found an organic nursery in California (Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply) that sells a variety of goji berry tree started from a plant in Utah. The folks at the nursery have produced a helpful video about planting and maintaining goji berries which I've embedded below. Trish and I are thinking about planting a couple in containers.

Goji Berries for People and for Bees

Trish is a great fan of goji berries. She buys the dried ones and adds them to the "green drinks" she makes in her Vitamix. Other ingredients for the green drinks include spinach, pear, and a variety of vegetables and fruits. They say these little berries have high concentrations of antioxidants, vitamin A, and all sorts of helpful compounds which we probably don't understand yet. Anyway, I got to thinking about bees and goji berries, and sure enough, the plants are a favorite of honeybees in China. Check out this page with beautiful close-up photos of bees and goji berry plants taken by Zachary Huang of Michigan State University. The author also has other articles with tips on "beetography" (or photographing bees).

Beekeeper as Murder Suspect

Last night we watched the last episode of the second season of Vera, a series of mystery films made by ITV in Britain. In this episode, titled A Certain Samaritan, one of the suspects is a beekeeper. Actually, in the opening sequence of the movie, some beehives are vandalized, so we were hooked from the start to follow the bee-related thread of the story. While the beekeeper isn't the main character, he's an interesting supporting character, and the varroa mite becomes a metaphor in the story.

Oh, and as a special bonus for fans of Downton Abbey, the actress who plays Mrs. Hughes has an important role in this episode as the mother of the murder victim. It was fun to see her in a modern-day role.

In general, this is a great series of made-for-TV movies starring Brenda Blethyn as a police inspector in the north of England. Toward the end of the episode last night, I was saying it's too bad there aren't more episodes to watch! But there are two sets of dvds available in the US, and a third series of episodes will be available one of these days, too.

If you like thoughtful mysteries, I think you'll like Vera.

A Great Bee Blog from Applegate, Oregon

"Applegate" just sounds like a good place to live, doesn't it? The name of the town makes me want to retire to an orchard right now. Actually, the house where we live in northwest Seattle used to be on an orchard, but that was a long time ago.

Back to Applegate, Oregon. This morning I happened upon a website from a family (identified as the Shockey family on their site's about page) who lives in Applegate and, among other things, has a strong dedication to natural beekeeping. In fact, their website is named after the Roman goddess of pollination, Mellonia. They have a nice little page which gives an overview of their beekeeping practices, which include beekeeping with the Warre style of hive, which they like because "because its theory and construction is such that you don't keep disturbing the bees to see what they are doing."

I also like that the Shockeys talk about how they "are not in the honey business" and thus wait until spring to harvest any honey that the bees don't need after getting through the winter: they "[believe] that honey, not sugar or high fructose corn syrup, is meant to feed bees."

See also this nice post by the mom of the Shockey family, Nadine Levie, about her excitement regarding the construction of her first Warre hive.

I'll definitely check back on the beekeeping adventures of the Shockey family in the future.

The Positively Charged Bee

Trish sent me an interesting article about bumblebees and flowers from NPR. Here's a little quote: "'When bees are flying through the air, just the friction of the air and the friction of the body parts on one another causes the bee to become positively charged...' It's like shuffling across a carpet in wool socks. When a positively charged bee lands on a flower, the negatively charged pollen grains naturally stick to it."

There's always more to bees than we know!

Buying a Package of Bees

When I first learned that honeybees are sold by the package, this sounded strange to me, as I couldn't make sense of comparing bees to other items that come by the package. I was picturing bees arriving on the doorstep like other brown cardboard boxes that come via UPS or FedEx or the postal service. I've heard that some people do in fact get bees by mail order, but this isn't how Trish orders her bees. She buys her bees from the Beez Neez in Snohomish.

If you're in the greater Seattle area, the Beez Neez is a great place to buy your bees. Trish orders a three-pound package of bees for one of her Warre hives. (They also sell four-pound packages.) The way it works is that you order online ahead of time (they are taking orders now!), and then you get an email notifying you about bee pickup day, which is sometime in April. On that day (well probably the day before), the bees are driven north from California on a big truck and dropped off at the Beez Neez warehouse, where they await pickup.

It's a unique experience to see a crowd of people lined up to get their packages of bees, but that's exactly what you see on bee pickup day. I know because I've been there! It was a little unsettling for me because there were a lot (A LOT!) of bees flying around, but the beekeeper/bee-retailer explained that these were just "hitchhiker" bees who had been attracted by the large number of bees (especially queen bees) all in one place. He brushed the extra bees off the sides of each package before giving it to the beekeeper who had come to pick it up. There were no loose bees in the car or anything like that.

Well, if you ever wondered, "where do you get your bees?" when you want to start a hive, buying a package is a great option. You can also get a wild swarm, which is a whole other story and not something we personally have done. For more about swarms, check out the swarms page on the Urban Bee Project site (also maintained by Seattle beekeepers).

Bee Mine

In honor of Valentine's Day, here's a bee-themed card from The Simpsons.

Remember the Valentine's episode from early in the series where Lisa gives Ralph a Valentine, and then he thinks she's his girlfriend? Later she makes things right by encouraging him to be friends instead. :) A classic.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of our honeybee friends--and all of our fellow friends of bees!

Spring Is Coming

Well, it feels like spring is coming as the weather hasn't been too chilly, and it actually stays light out past 5pm. But as Trish and I were discussing earlier today, it can still get pretty cold in February!

The good news is that it's warm enough that Trish can enjoy doing woodworking in the garage again, and she's been building some beehives. If you're near the Seattle area and looking for a handmade Warre hive to use this spring, let us know. She's making the hives from pine and finishing them with EcoFin, a soy-based nontoxic stain.

Haven't seen any bees out and about, so it can't really be near spring yet, can it? Has anyone seen a bee lately?

Do You Bake with Honey?

I baked some banana muffins yesterday, and the recipe called for white sugar, but I decided to substitute honey. I've always been a little hesitant about substituting honey for granulated sugar, but why not experiment a little? I referred to Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair in hopes of finding some guidelines, and I was happy to find a list of natural sweeteners and suggestions for using them. As it happens, the edition of this book that Trish has doesn't mention honey, and I'm not sure if Lair mentions it in later editions of the book, but this list of alternative sweeteners on the Bastyr Center's website--inspired by Lair's list--does include honey.

Basically, you just substitute honey one-for-one for the sugar in a recipe and then add a little flour or reduce other liquid content. My recipe called for 1/3 cup white sugar, and I used a little less than 1/3 cup of honey and added a couple extra tablespoons of flour. I used whole wheat pastry flour from Bob's Red Mill--great stuff! The recipe turned out nicely with a subtle honey flavor.

I'm not sure how it goes if you try to sub honey for brown sugar. Has anyone tried? I experimented with date sugar in the past and found it was a good substitute for brown sugar in zucchini bread, but it was not so great for cookies.

I'd also be very curious to hear other thoughts about and experiences with baking with honey and other alternatives to processed sugars if you have a moment to share! :)