Seeds For Young Farmers
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When Jesse Kuhn started Marin Roots Farm at age 28, he already had dirt
under his fingernails. He’d studied ag in college, managed a student farm,
and work...
4/28/10
No fresh eggs at the White House Garden - From Washington Post
"This spring, the garden expanded from 1,100 square feet to 1,500 square feet and features a wide variety - broccoli, rhubarb, carrots, spinach, cauliflower, peas and collard greens. There are even some lettuces grown from seeds and sprouts that originated in Thomas Jefferson's garden.
Coming soon: corn, beans, cantaloupe, pumpkins, leeks and artichokes. Kass says they might even try their hand at pickling some cucumbers and beans for the first family.
Kass and aides to Mrs. Obama won't elaborate on why the garden isn't technically organic.
"What's really powerful about this garden is it shows kids where food comes from," he says. "It's captured attention around the world."
One thing that won't be added to the expanding patch of land? Eggs.
"We are not going to have chickens on the White House lawn," Kass confirmed.
I tried my best.
I am sorry I never heard back from writing my letter.
4/23/10
Awesomeness - Yummyfun.com
If your a kid and you like cool food check out my friend Clare's YummyFun.com!
Thanks Clare for writing about Happy Chickens, cool.
4/19/10
4/18/10
Cool New book
"is ashley’s (informative) love letter to keeping your own chickens...ashley covers all the basics for caring for a happy, healthy flock, including breed selection, purchasing, housing, feeding, and hatching. but my favorite part of the book is a delicious recipe section for making the most of your home farm-fresh eggs. the book really goes into great, but easy-to-understand, detail about the process, so if you’ve ever been curious about keeping your own flock at home, this is the perfect place to start."
I'm hoping to visit Rooftop Farm in May!
CLICK HERE to see a segement on Rooftop Farms in Brooklyn on Martha Stewart Show
4/17/10
Thank you Papa.
Here is what my dad told me about the night he buried Francisco. I couldn't do it. I was too sad.
"I went out to the barn and it was peaceful and quiet. I grabbed a shovel and went out to the middle of the big field. The peach trees were in bloom and they reflected the light from the moon. Up in the sky was a very very bright star. Was it Mars? Venus? Just a big bright star. I dug a deep hole. I put both food and water in the hole for Fancisco's journey. I also put a little egg in the hole from one of his coop mates. It was a little egg, from the bantam cochins. The hole was deep, the stars were shining.
When I finished digging the hole I went back into the barn where Francisco lay. Guess what? The two little cochins Sugar and Lola were snuggled up next to him. They new. They loved him too. They were right next to him, one on each side of him. I picked up Francisco gently and took him out into the cool air. I started to walk our to the field where I had dug the hole. I looked up to the sky and guess what???? The very very bright star was gone. Gone. I knew the star had jumped down into the hole. So whenever you look up into the sky and see a bright, generous star, that is Francisco. He was an awesome bird and we were lucky to know him."
He looks like star doesn't he.
Giant honey bees - Life in the Undergrowth - BBC Attenborough
Sir David Attenborough visits Malaysia to take a closer look at the life of the world's largest honey bees. When one sting can lead to a thousand very quickly in a very defensive colony of killer bees, Sir David is quite keen to make a good impression!. Amazing video from BBC animal and wildlife show 'Life in the Undergrowth'.
Making solitary bee houses from foxleas.com
What are Solitary Bees ?
As well as Bumblebees and Honeybees (that live collectively) there are some 200 species of wild bees in the UK that are called 'solitary bees' because they make individual nest cells for their larvae. Some species nest in small tunnels or holes in the ground or in sandy banks, piles of sand, or crumbling mortar. Others use the hollow stems of dead plants such as brambles, or tunnels previously bored into dead wood by beetles. Mason Bees and Leafcutter Bees are well-known examples and are common in gardens.
Solitary bees are harmless and do not sting, they do not live in hives or build combs, and they do not swarm.
If you find them (for example in old house walls) please leave them alone. Colonies are very faithful to their nest sites and may have been living there for many decades. They are part of the 'fine grain' of your local biodiversity - something to be cherished. A number of species are commonly seen in gardens, and they are very useful as they pollinate fruit crops. It is easy for gardeners to encourage them. By drilling holes in dry logs or blocks of wood it is possible to create artificial nesting sites for them.
As well as Bumblebees and Honeybees (that live collectively) there are some 200 species of wild bees in the UK that are called 'solitary bees' because they make individual nest cells for their larvae. Some species nest in small tunnels or holes in the ground or in sandy banks, piles of sand, or crumbling mortar. Others use the hollow stems of dead plants such as brambles, or tunnels previously bored into dead wood by beetles. Mason Bees and Leafcutter Bees are well-known examples and are common in gardens.
Solitary bees are harmless and do not sting, they do not live in hives or build combs, and they do not swarm.
If you find them (for example in old house walls) please leave them alone. Colonies are very faithful to their nest sites and may have been living there for many decades. They are part of the 'fine grain' of your local biodiversity - something to be cherished. A number of species are commonly seen in gardens, and they are very useful as they pollinate fruit crops. It is easy for gardeners to encourage them. By drilling holes in dry logs or blocks of wood it is possible to create artificial nesting sites for them.
Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn
"Participants in the conversation will include the most prominent national and local voices on the subject, including Fritz Haeg, artist, designer, radical gardener, and author of Edible Estates; Will Allen, contributor to the book, and MacArthur winning founder of Milwaukee- based Growing Power; Annie Novak, founder of Rooftop Farms in Greenpoint; and Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President and the force behind "FoodNYC: A Blueprint for a Sustainable Food System," the most comprehensive effort to date to unify and reform New York City's policies regarding the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food. Panelists will tell stories of projects, gardens and urban farms that are already in the ground as provocative examples of what New York, and other cities, might look like in the future."
Help Save the Bees Blog from @helpsavebees
The pictures above show a Mason Bee House made using a planked wooden frame, stuffed with various sized bamboo stems.
Mason bee is a general term for certain species of bees in the family Megachilidae, most appropriately restricted to the genus Osmia, such as the Orchard Mason bee (Osmia lignaria), the blueberry bee (Osmia ribifloris), and the hornfaced bee (Osmia cornifrons). They are named from their habit of making compartments of mud in their nests, which are made in hollow reeds or holes in wood made by wood boring insects. Unless of course you make your own nest for them with drill bits and blocks of wood. Mason bees are increasingly cultivated to improve pollination for early spring fruit flowers. They are used sometimes as an alternative, but more often as an augmentation for European Honey bees.
Unlike Honey bees (Apis), Mason bees are solitary; every female is fertile and makes her own nest, and there are no worker bees for these species. Solitary bees produce neither honey nor beeswax. They are immune from acarine and Varroa mites, but have their own unique parasites, pests and diseases.
MORE HERE
4/14/10
Guest Blog Post from - my friend @CarrieOliver
Perhaps it’s true that I swallowed one once at Lake Tahoe, straight out of a bottle of Coke. It’s a faint but distinct memory. Did I make that up?
I definitely remember my sister putting her foot down on a honeybee that was, for whatever ill-fated reason, on the floor beneath our kitchen table. Her screams were awful and piercing; my mom raced to get something out of the pantry to help (flour?).
But the most indelible memory was also one of the most fantastic, it was the day my friend Barbie and I found ourselves standing 5 feet away from a tight cone of bees precariously hanging from the limb of my favorite climbing tree. “Stop, now! Do not move. Do not talk. Stay still,” came the stern, unusually sharp voice of my father.
I’d just found Barbie hiding behind a rhododendron bush and she was racing and screaming her way to home base so as to avoid being tagged “it.” My dad’s tone could have stopped an elephant. “Now. Slowly. Into the house.”
A few hours later, an apiarist placed what looked like a white, windowless dollhouse in the yard perhaps 20 feet from the terrifying Cone of Bees. Now safe behind our dining room windows, this bee-phobic gal cautiously but curiously watched as a small number of bees flew to the dollhouse, entered the elongated front door, and flew back to The Cone. The apiarist explained, they are scouts, checking out the old hive in that box to see whether it’s appropriate for The Queen.
After an indeterminate period, the magic began. Rather than a here and there bee starting toward that dollhouse, which I now understood to contain a beehive inside, a three inch thick, several feet wide carpet of bees descended upon that box in a single, slow movement, piling in on top of one another as they entered their new home.
The apiarist shortly thereafter explained that we had a hive of honeybees in one of our inactive chimneys and that it seemed the hive had been split by the arrival of a second Queen. He estimated there were 21,000 honeybees in that cone, the one that had been 5 feet from my tag-flushed face just a few hours ago.
With some luck, I was able to sleep that night, knowing there was a similar sized, frightening colony of bees still inside the walls of my home. Some weeks later, the bees left our chimney for good, in search of new flowers, I do not know. What I do wish is that at the time, I’d understood how important those honeybees were to the world in which I lived and the food that I ate.
If I could do it again, would I cultivate the bees that so profoundly scared my 10-year old mind? Would I be as brave, insightful, and thoughtful as a person named Orren Fox? It’s hard to say, but thank you, Orren, for bringing the plight of the honeybee and the wonderful things they add to our lives to our attention.
And to my sister, I hope the memory of that honeybee sting long ago faded for you. It’s still with me, but it’s in a different place, now in my heart for you.
Carrie C. Oliver
Founder & CEO
The Oliver Ranch Company & The Artisan Beef Institute
www.oliverranch.com
http://discoverbeef.blogspot.com/
Twitter @CarrieOliver
4/13/10
Noah from Boston's Best Bees
Stuff magazine staff writer Scott Kearnan came to visit Noah a few weeks ago for an interview and introduction to some honey bees. Scott is a great guy, and asked all the right questions. He experienced what a honey bee hive is like in the winter time, and saw the girls huddling together between the hive frames. It was a really fun experience.
Check out his full report here:
4/12/10
Broodiness - good advice from mypetchicken.com
I have a blue cochin who is broody, she has even pulled the feathers off her belly so her skin will be closer to the eggs! I take her out of the nesting box as often as possible.
Broodiness
Your hens may go "broody" at any time in their life. This is when they stubbornly insist on sitting on eggs in order to hatch them into baby chicks. It doesn't matter if the eggs are fertilized or not; some hens will even go broody on golf balls or wooden eggs!
If you have a rooster and want baby chicks, great! But if you don't have a rooster, there are several reasons why you won't want broodiness. First, a broody hen gets grumpy when you try to collect the eggs from underneath her. She might even peck you, so beware! Second, because the eggs are not fertilized, the heat of your hen sitting on them will cause them to decompose at a faster rate - and you want to eat them, don't you? Third, a broody hen plucks out her own breast feathers to line the nest. Ouch! And all for nothing! Finally, a broody hen will just sit and sit on her nest, not eating or drinking as much as she normally would. This will weaken her and deprive her of much-needed nutrients.
To prevent this habit from forming, collect eggs every day. Hens are more likely to go broody on a nest full of eggs.
If a hen has ALREADY gone broody, there are several tactics you can use to break her of this habit. Start by repeatedly removing her from the nest. When Sammy, our Salmon Faverolle, went broody, we'd remove her and carry her around for 10 minutes or so, twice a day. We had to do this for two days before she stopped. For birds that are more determined to be mommies, ice cubes or an ice pack in the nest will usually do the trick. In rare cases, more extreme measures are necessary! Our Australorp, Sweetie, determinedly sat on and melted every ice cube we put under her for a whole week. In the end, we had to put her in "solitary" to break her! (With access to food and water, of course...) When she finally laid an egg again, we knew she was good to go back in the coop.
Broodiness
Your hens may go "broody" at any time in their life. This is when they stubbornly insist on sitting on eggs in order to hatch them into baby chicks. It doesn't matter if the eggs are fertilized or not; some hens will even go broody on golf balls or wooden eggs!
If you have a rooster and want baby chicks, great! But if you don't have a rooster, there are several reasons why you won't want broodiness. First, a broody hen gets grumpy when you try to collect the eggs from underneath her. She might even peck you, so beware! Second, because the eggs are not fertilized, the heat of your hen sitting on them will cause them to decompose at a faster rate - and you want to eat them, don't you? Third, a broody hen plucks out her own breast feathers to line the nest. Ouch! And all for nothing! Finally, a broody hen will just sit and sit on her nest, not eating or drinking as much as she normally would. This will weaken her and deprive her of much-needed nutrients.
To prevent this habit from forming, collect eggs every day. Hens are more likely to go broody on a nest full of eggs.
If a hen has ALREADY gone broody, there are several tactics you can use to break her of this habit. Start by repeatedly removing her from the nest. When Sammy, our Salmon Faverolle, went broody, we'd remove her and carry her around for 10 minutes or so, twice a day. We had to do this for two days before she stopped. For birds that are more determined to be mommies, ice cubes or an ice pack in the nest will usually do the trick. In rare cases, more extreme measures are necessary! Our Australorp, Sweetie, determinedly sat on and melted every ice cube we put under her for a whole week. In the end, we had to put her in "solitary" to break her! (With access to food and water, of course...) When she finally laid an egg again, we knew she was good to go back in the coop.
4/10/10
“If you want to harvest honey, don’t kick over the beehive.” –Abraham Lincoln
The U.S Department of Agriculture estimates that there are between 140,000 and 200,000 thousand beekeepers in the United States, most of them hobbyists with fewer than 25 hives. Commercial beekeepers are defined as those with more than 300 colonies.
A typical colony of honey bees has about 60,000 bees and can produce over a hundred and fifty pounds of honey in one season.
Each honey bee makes an average of one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. To make one pound, a colony of bees will make about two million nectar-gathering visits to flowers. The resulting honey requires the bees to fly a total of 55,000 miles collectively.
A typical colony of honey bees has about 60,000 bees and can produce over a hundred and fifty pounds of honey in one season.
Each honey bee makes an average of one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. To make one pound, a colony of bees will make about two million nectar-gathering visits to flowers. The resulting honey requires the bees to fly a total of 55,000 miles collectively.
insectopedia.org
Sweet Honey on the Roof - From NYT
EDITORIAL Published: April 3, 2010
Here’s the best news we have heard in a while: keeping honeybees is now legal in New York City. The old rule was based on a misunderstanding. It lumped honeybees into a long list of wild animals that may not be kept in the city — outside a zoo — including the hippopotamus and elephant.
Honeybees will sting, if provoked. But their nature is so gentle, their honey sweet, and their moral character benign and enterprising.
The change has been a long time coming, and it is part of the groundswell in support of local agriculture. Honeybees are important pollinators for crops of all kinds, and rooftop hives are a good step toward greening the roofs of this city. There is a honey industry and a pollination industry, but bees really need more amateur beekeepers, the kind likely to be caring for city hives.
The more bees there are — and the more diverse the circumstances in which they are kept — the better for the welfare of the species, which recently has been threatened by two kinds of mites and a still poorly understood syndrome called colony collapse disorder.
City beekeepers will have to register their hives with the health department and make sure that they have ready access to water. Beekeepers are also required to be able to respond immediately to swarms, which is just normal good practice in keeping bees. As it happens, most beekeepers are also avid ambassadors from the domain of the hive. That is just what New Yorkers need in order to rest easy and accept honeybees as natural and highly beneficial neighbors.
Here’s the best news we have heard in a while: keeping honeybees is now legal in New York City. The old rule was based on a misunderstanding. It lumped honeybees into a long list of wild animals that may not be kept in the city — outside a zoo — including the hippopotamus and elephant.
Honeybees will sting, if provoked. But their nature is so gentle, their honey sweet, and their moral character benign and enterprising.
The change has been a long time coming, and it is part of the groundswell in support of local agriculture. Honeybees are important pollinators for crops of all kinds, and rooftop hives are a good step toward greening the roofs of this city. There is a honey industry and a pollination industry, but bees really need more amateur beekeepers, the kind likely to be caring for city hives.
The more bees there are — and the more diverse the circumstances in which they are kept — the better for the welfare of the species, which recently has been threatened by two kinds of mites and a still poorly understood syndrome called colony collapse disorder.
City beekeepers will have to register their hives with the health department and make sure that they have ready access to water. Beekeepers are also required to be able to respond immediately to swarms, which is just normal good practice in keeping bees. As it happens, most beekeepers are also avid ambassadors from the domain of the hive. That is just what New Yorkers need in order to rest easy and accept honeybees as natural and highly beneficial neighbors.
4/9/10
4/6/10
Broadcast Chicken - New Yorker Blog
April 2, 2010
Posted by Susan Orlean
I’m happy to report that my trip to Manhattan to appear on “The Martha Stewart Show” with my chicken Tookie went off without incident. I worried every step of the way. I worried whether Tookie would like the car ride, and whether she’d be happy being in the television studio, and whether she’d act out in some wild chicken-y way on camera; I even worried whether, when she was back home with her flock, the other chickens would sense some fundamental change in her (exposure to the bright lights of New York City and the dazzle of television fame can do that) and, full of doubt and suspicion, turn on her—a sort of chicken version of “The Return of Martin Guerre.”
It turns out that Tookie is a trouper. She sat quietly in her crate on the ride down and in the nicely appointed Martha Stewart dining room, noshing happily on frozen corn kernels and flicking her head side to side each time a production assistant rushed in, waving microphones and headsets and show breakdown sheets.
The one moment that really unnerved me was when I walked out on the set and realized that there were several dozen chickens running around and sitting on audience members’ laps. Chickens, as a rule, are as cliquey as high-school girls, and are quite happy to tear to pieces an unfamiliar bird. The first time I introduced a new chicken into my flock, Tookie was the meanest of the mean girls, clucking angrily, making threats, and showing a lot of pointy beak. During my segment on the show, I sat with Tookie on my lap; there were a bunch of chickens scratching and chatting and making a fuss very near us, and, well within striking distance, a huge feathery Araucana lolling in Stewart’s lap. I could hardly breathe, wondering if Tookie would puff up and start pecking at the bird, or, worse, at Stewart. But miraculously, she sat regally and calmly through the segment. And better still, now that she’s home again, she has settled right back in with her fellow hens, and they with her, as if she had never been on network television at all.
Here’s Martha putting a chicken to sleep:
CLICK HERE to Susan Orlean New Yorker blog
Posted by Susan Orlean
I’m happy to report that my trip to Manhattan to appear on “The Martha Stewart Show” with my chicken Tookie went off without incident. I worried every step of the way. I worried whether Tookie would like the car ride, and whether she’d be happy being in the television studio, and whether she’d act out in some wild chicken-y way on camera; I even worried whether, when she was back home with her flock, the other chickens would sense some fundamental change in her (exposure to the bright lights of New York City and the dazzle of television fame can do that) and, full of doubt and suspicion, turn on her—a sort of chicken version of “The Return of Martin Guerre.”
It turns out that Tookie is a trouper. She sat quietly in her crate on the ride down and in the nicely appointed Martha Stewart dining room, noshing happily on frozen corn kernels and flicking her head side to side each time a production assistant rushed in, waving microphones and headsets and show breakdown sheets.
The one moment that really unnerved me was when I walked out on the set and realized that there were several dozen chickens running around and sitting on audience members’ laps. Chickens, as a rule, are as cliquey as high-school girls, and are quite happy to tear to pieces an unfamiliar bird. The first time I introduced a new chicken into my flock, Tookie was the meanest of the mean girls, clucking angrily, making threats, and showing a lot of pointy beak. During my segment on the show, I sat with Tookie on my lap; there were a bunch of chickens scratching and chatting and making a fuss very near us, and, well within striking distance, a huge feathery Araucana lolling in Stewart’s lap. I could hardly breathe, wondering if Tookie would puff up and start pecking at the bird, or, worse, at Stewart. But miraculously, she sat regally and calmly through the segment. And better still, now that she’s home again, she has settled right back in with her fellow hens, and they with her, as if she had never been on network television at all.
Here’s Martha putting a chicken to sleep:
CLICK HERE to Susan Orlean New Yorker blog
Chicken TV - by Susan Orlean
"I’m bringing one of my chickens to Manhattan tomorrow, to be on an episode of “The Martha Stewart Show,” which Martha—a celebrated chicken keeper herself—is devoting to the subject of backyard chickens. My chickens are not seasoned travellers (note to self: maybe don’t use the word “seasoned” when talking about pet chickens?) so I’ve been fretting about the whole enterprise, which will entail travelling two hours by car from my house to the city, and then several hours in the studio while we tape the show. For the last week or so, I’ve been auditioning to see which of my seven chickens would be the most camera-ready and most travel-friendly. My prettiest hen is Merry-Go-Round, a Silver-Laced Wyandotte—she’s plump and bosomy, covered with a craze of black and white stripes, and has a brilliant red wrinkly comb. She’d look great on television, but she’s bossy and noisy and given to little fits of temper; pass. Tweed and Mabel Black Label, my Araucanas, are somewhat antisocial; when I pick either of them up, they eye me with such deep suspicion that I feel like they can smell omelets on my breath. They’re probably not the right chickens for television. My little bantam, Tina Louise, is so fast and frantic that I’m not even sure I’d be able to catch her to put her in the car. Helen Reddy, my Rhode Island Red, is lovely, but she’s the lowest chicken in the social order of my coop, and I’m afraid if I take her away for a day she’d lose her position altogether.
My rooster Laura is so gorgeous that I’d love to show him off, and for a moment I thought of making him the star. This is a bit of vanity on my part. Most sane people are a little afraid of roosters. Even though they’re not that big, they can pack quite a punch. I have to handle Laura frequently (for instance, I spent a few evenings this winter massaging Vaseline into his comb, to ward off frostbite) and I’ve started fancying myself a bit of a chicken whisperer since he usually lets me pick him up and hold him without incident. The other day, I held him in my arms and started talking to him about the trip, and he was as relaxed as a lapdog. I went back to the house and returned to the coop a few minutes later; this time he chased me into the corner, slapped me with his wings, and tried to kill me. Chastened, I scratched him as my entry. I’ve finally decided to bring my sweet hen Tookie, the oldest of my chickens, the only one of my original four who is still around. She’ll get a bag of corn for her efforts—and residuals, of course. " by Susan Orlean
(Photograph: Tookie, left, and her late sister Beauty.)
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/susanorlean/2010/03/chicken-tv.html#ixzz0kKRSXYC9
4/4/10
Mayor Bloomberg it is time for a garden in front of City Hall!
Sign the Petition to let Mayor Bloomberg know that it's time for a vegetable garden at City Hall!
4/3/10
Bees In The Key of A - My BEE MENTOR, Nancy
Trailer 1-Bees In The Key of A from brynmore on Vimeo.
The bees are in regression. In the last year the US domestic bee population has been reduced by a 1/3 and no one knows why. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been the name assigned to this phenomena but what exactly constitutes this disorder is still being studied.
"Bees in the Key of A" explores the sounds that bring a beehive to life.
A personal look at bees through the eyes and ears of those who recognize this remarkable insect's intimate connection to mankind, our food and our future.
What's The Buzz On Beekeeping This Year?
"A new study found honeybee hives laced with pesticides. Is this a clue to Colony Collapse Disorder? Entomologist Jeff Pettis, of the USDA Bee Research Lab, and beekeeper Richard Blohm, of High Meadow Honey Farm in Long Island, discuss the latest bee news from lab and field."
CLICK HERE:The Buzz On Bees: Coping With Vanishing Colonies
CLICK HERE: Rooftop Bees Give Restaurant Hyperlocal Flavor
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