bees and blooms

We all got our hands sticky at the Roots to Harvest Urban Beekeeping course on Tuesday evening. I'm not sure Adam will forgive me for sharing this photo of him all around, but I think it looks cool - we were all mesmerized by the bees, studying their combs, social order, and coordination. I absolutely love this - everyone should take this course.

I've decided next summer will be bee summer. At first, as I learned more about everything involved, I thought new bees and a new baby might be too much..., but, if I delay for reasons like that we'll never get bees. By the time the bees come baby and I will have had time to get to know one another, and establish some sort of routine. We'll start small, with two brood boxes and a stack of one or two honey stackers - I'll sort that out with Barry (Bears'Bees&Honey)

the bee hives at
Roots to Harvest
Cornwall & Algoma Garden

busy bees

Now known as the "bee garden" the adopted garden at the back of the yard now makes sense to me. It's already wild and mature, with enough small empty spaces for me to add some simple wildflowers for the bees. It's half covered by the Norway Maples nearby, and will have even more tree coverage when we plant a couple apple trees along the back fence on Finn's birthday this year. The garden will still get all day afternoon sun along the south side, which is what the bees need.

There are some purple/dark blue delphiniums near the centre of the bed that are blooming like idiots right now. Next year they'll be staked. Also in the bee garden: Stella De Oro who is taking up enormous space, desperately needs dividing, but we'll see if I ever get around to that.., some irises, a whole bunch of hostas, some Lady's Mantle, two things I'm blanking on, and a couple of lilies here and there. In spring there were some orange tulips, which I will add to with some other early bloomers.

I imagine the space looking like a wildflower garden - tall, kind of crazy, colourful, and every changing. The bees will love it. 

In other garden update news:

The backyard garden, which consists of the two beds nearest the house and shack. The peanut shaped bed already had a nicely shaped Catone aster, and the lime leafed spirea (which has been covered in bumble bees every day as it flowers). I've added bee balm and rhubarb, mother of thyme and ajuga around the rock and lamp post, two daylilies: 'Pizza Crust' and 'Anzac', a hosta under the Catone aster (can't remember the name right now), a dwarf Goat's Beard, and a Lady's Mantle. There's still a lot more space in that bed - and a dog problem.

      

The bed nearest the house remains empty - we haven't even topped it with triple mix yet. It is going to take me years to fill these beds. They're huge. For now, we left the caragana near the door, and the upright juniper near the dining room window. There's a peony to be planted near that, and 'Golden Celebration (David Austin rose) to go near the side door. I sort of wish we could turn this into a decorative vegetable, herb, and perennial bed (leave lots of empty spaces for annual food)..., but it's visited by too many dogs - who aren't even thwarted by ugly bright orange flagging tape. We'll have to wait and see how this one grows.

Under the Hawthorns, the lilies have bloomed. I'm not entirely crazy about them, which is why I like them. I never would have chosen these, it's a colour that is missing in my gardens, and I think they will compliment anything I add. They're bold and bright in the shaded Hawthorn garden. 

Three Bees

The Renaissance of Bees

The Renaissance of Bees

Woolfson, Jonathan

Source: Renaissance Studies
Volume 24, Number 2,
April 2010, pp. 281-300
Blackwell Publishing

ABSTRACT

Insects have occupied the planet for over 400 million years, humans for a mere one million. Their impact on human development has been incalculable. They are likely to outlive us. This article explores selected cases in attitudes to the honeybee, an insect with a particularly intense history of interaction with humans, from the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth centuries, mainly drawn from England and Italy, but with forays into other parts of Europe. It is argued that the Renaissance of bees is a mixed phenomenon, characterized by the elaboration of ancient and medieval ideas about these creatures; a heightened tendency to moralize about human society in the light of them; and a new curiosity for understanding them better through direct observation. The study of attitudes to bees sheds light on religion, politics, science and gender during the Renaissance.

Jonathan Woolfson ¹

  ¹ Istituto Lorenzo de'Medici, Florence

 I am grateful to audiences at the Warburg Institute, Sussex University, and the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in Atlanta for response to versions of this article. Thanks especially to Susan Brigden, Peter Burke, Rita Comanducci, Martin van Gelderen, Claire Preston and Flaminia Pichiorri. For general orientations to the subject of this article see Peter Burke, 'Fables of the Bees: A Case-Study in Views of Nature and Society', in Mikulas Teich, Roy Porter and Bo Gustafsson (eds.), Nature and Society in Historical Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 112–23; Claire Preston, Bee (London: Reaktion Books, 2006); Bee Wilson, The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us (London: John Murray, 2004); Max Beier, 'The Early Naturalists and Anatomists during the Renaissance and Seventeenth Century', in Ray F. Smith, Thomas E. Mittler and Carroll. N. Smith (eds.), History of Entomology (Palo Alto: Annual Reviews, 1973), 81–94; and Hattie Ellis, Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honey Bee (London: Sceptre, 2004).

The Not So Secret Lives of Bees

http://www.pollinationcanada.ca/

http://www.ontariobee.com/

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/food/inspection/bees/info_suppliers.htm

http://www.beeculture.com/

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/blogs/bees/

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex3946

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/06/10/f-bees-colony-mites.html and http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/11/22/bees-nosema.html

http://biobees.blogspot.com/

World Food Day 2008

World Food Day 2008
Lakehead University Agora

World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Roots to Harvest, along with the Food Security Research Network, Advanced Institute for Globalization & Culture, Food Action Network, and LUSU hosted World Food Day today in the Agora.
The Boreal Edge Farm, Belluz Farm, Jeff's wheat mill and Brule Creek Farm, Seeds of Diversity, the Good Food Box, were among the many display booths; and Dr. Mustafa Koc co-founder of the Centre for Studies in Food Security visited Lakehead as keynote speaker.

UConn raises honey bees to supply dining hall ...so could we

BY GRACE E. MERRITT COURANT STAFF WRITER
June 1, 2008
The Hartford Courant

"In a great green meadow, behind a forgotten apple orchard, 100,000 bees got to work Saturday making honey for University of Connecticut dining halls.

Two university dining service employees gently shook the bees, shipped in from Georgia, into 10 new hives Saturday afternoon, making UConn probably the first college in the country to make its own honey for its dining halls.

By next year, UConn hopes to produce as much as 2,000 pounds of honey from the hives, more than half the 3,800 pounds the university kitchens use a year in marinades, sauces and baked goods.Starting an apiary seemed like a logical, if novel, step in UConn's efforts to serve more locally grown food, part of a national trend in college dining services to become more environmentally conscious." ....

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