Do Beekeeping - The secret to happy honeybees by @happyhoneybees

Honey. Drizzled over a slice of fresh bread… or eaten directly from the spoon… is one of life’s great pleasures. And with beehives springing up on urban rooftops, in next door’s back garden – even schemes for adopting bees or renting hives – becoming a honey producer seems… possible. So how easy is it and what’s involved?

By sharing the journey of 18-year-old beekeeper Orren Fox – who clearly remembers what it’s like to be a rookie – you’ll discover that keeping your own honeybees is easier than you think. Find out:

• How and where to set up your hive
• The tools and equipment you need to get started
• The job of inspecting the hive
• How and when to harvest your honey

With delicious honey-based recipes shared by talented and resourceful chefs and cooks, including Honey & Co., you’ll learn all about bees and their inspiring world of work and honey production. And may even be tempted to buy your first bee suit.

AVAILABLE :

DoBookCo HERE

Amazon HERE

*** ALL Proceeds go to BLINK NOW

_________________________

Orren Fox is an 18-year-old beekeeper, chicken farmer, sustainable-food advocate, longboard builder and student. He grew up in Newburyport, MA and has been keeping chickens and bees for most of his life. He was a speaker at the Do Lectures USA in 2012. Orren is the author of happychickens.com, a blog on raising healthy chickens and bees, naturally. He has written several articles and has been interviewed for the Huffington Post, NPR, Yankee Magazine

In May 2012, Orren was invited to the White House as the guest of Kathleen Merrigan, then Deputy Secretary, as part of a Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food event. As part of the event, Orren was invited to send his honey to Sam Kass, the Executive Director of Let's Move and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy for a 'honey show down'. The White House has hives and harvests the honey each year. Orren is also the founder of #beechat, a Twitter meetup whose goal is to gather beekeepers from around the world to share information and ultimately help bees.

From thedobook.co

See TheDoBook.Co here:

Tamara Staples new book, The Magnificent Chicken @staplestamara

Susan

Photo by Tamara Staples of Happy Chickens

The new book by Tamara Staples 

I was lucky enough to meet Ms. Staples not long ago. I had always loved her book The Fairest Fowl and when we met she took this amazing photo of Susan ( named for @susanorlean another chicken fan who I spoke to for ChopChop Magazine) She now has a new book The Magnificent Chicken which looks really great.

Check it out.

Must have book for your Chicken Library

Should be number one on your list.














Number two on your list.

Gristle

One of the best things that modern animal agriculture has going for it is that most people . . . haven’t a clue how animals are raised and processed.
PETER CHEEKE, PROFESOR OF ANIMAL AGRICULTURE, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

"Where’s the beef? In the news, that’s where. More than ever, meat is making the headlines and growing numbers of people are becoming more informed and passionate about what they eat. The facts are compelling: contamination cases are on the rise, obesity has become pandemic in the United States, and the animal agriculture sector is responsible for more human-induced greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation sector. It’s no wonder that millions of people are thinking twice about meat."

More info here

My new book

Why doesn't every secondhand book shop have a dedicated 'Bee' section like this.

From a really cool blog, The Bumblebee Chronicle, SEE HERE

Another Take on Chick Lit - Penelope Green

The chicken is still having her moment as the mascot and darling of the always-cresting locavore food movement. But as hipsters and foodies from New York to San Francisco embrace her charms and services — like her ability to consume food scraps and turn them into nitrogen-rich compost much faster than, say, a clutch of earthworms can (and with bucketloads more personality) — many people are struggling to learn how, exactly, to care for her.

Enter “City Chicks: Keeping Micro-Flocks of Laying Hens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-Recyclers and Local Food Suppliers” (Good Earth Publications, $22.50). Yes, its title is a mouthful, but its author, Patricia Foreman, a pharmacist and author from Lexington, Va., is a very thorough woman. (She has degrees in agricultural science and public affairs and has kept chickens, and written about sustainable agriculture, for two decades.)

In an attempt to have the chicken-keeping laws of Lexington changed — the city, like many others, considers chickens livestock, which are usually contraband within city limits — she took Attila the Hen, a comely and personable fowl (above, with Ms. Foreman), to a city council meeting. The council members, she said, loved the chicken, which purred and preened as she was passed around, but the law remained, to Ms. Foreman’s dismay.

“I think the stakes are high,” she said in a telephone interview. “We need to change our food supply, manage our trash and get off the oil habit.”

In her book, Ms. Foreman notes that commercial fertilizers and pesticides are oil-based, but chickens make a richer fertilizer than the commercial variety and are deft weeders and pest eaters. Of course, she said, “education is key, to show that chickens are an asset, not a nuisance.”

Summer Reading books

"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."

"We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States—enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over—has a downside. Our overefficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more—more food, more often, and in larger portions—no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being."

All I Need To Know I Learned From My Chickens

Wake up early, stay busy
Rest when you need to, but always stay alert
Visit you favourite places every day
Scratch out a living
Routine is good
Plump is good
Don't ponder your purpose in life - your brain is too small
Accept the pecking order and know you enemies
Weed your garden
Look after your children
- Sit on them if necessary
- Take them for walks, show them the little things and talk constantly
Make a nice nest - share it with friends
Brag on your accomplishments
Protect your nest egg
Test your wings once in a while
Squawk when necessary
As you age, demand respect
Leave a little something for those who care about you
Chase butterflies

by Michaele Oleson

My Mom's favorite book - The New Organic Grower

Jane Goodall - Book about eating

A teacher at school said I should read this book

From Publishers Weekly
Goodall, best known for her decades of work with chimpanzees and baboons, turns to the social significance of the food people eat and of how it reaches our tables. In a style that's both persuasive and Pollyannaish, her guide glides through a quick history of early agriculture, despairs of "death by monoculture" (single-crop farming), warns of the hazards of genetically modified foods and of the disappearance of seed diversity,and bemoans the existence of inhumane animal factories and unclean fish farms—the macro concerns of the environmentally conscious. On a more micro level, she focuses on what individuals can do for themselves. In a grab bag of well-intentioned bromides, Goodall counsels her readers to become vegetarians, celebrates restaurants and grocery stores that seek out locally grown produce, frets about the quality of school lunches and the pervasiveness of fast food–fueled obesity, honors small farmers and warns of a looming water crisis. Most chapters conclude with "what you can do" sections: demand that modified foods be labeled; turn off the tap while brushing your teeth. This book about making healthy choices breaks no new ground, but its jargon-free and anecdote-rich approach makes it a useful primer for grassroots activists, while the Goodall imprimatur could broaden its reach.

The Pig who sang to the moon.

"In this ground-breaking book, Jeffrey Masson reveals startling evidence that farm animals have feelings, even consciousness - and bears witness to the emotions and intelligence of these remarkable barnyard creatures, each unique with distinct qualities.

Curious, intelligent, self-reliant - many will find it hard to believe that these attributes describe a pig. They also dream and know their names when called. Mother cows mourn when their calves are taken away. Given a choice between food that is nutritious or lacking in minerals, sheep will select the former, balancing their diet and correcting the deficiency. Goats display quite a sense of humor, dignity and fearlessness (Indian goats have been known to kill leopards). Chickens are naturally sociable - they will gather around a human companion and preen themselves beside someone they trust."

The Face on Your Plate

Most fascinating, however, is Masson's final section, which addresses the lives and deaths of animals raised for food and the complex psychological gyrations humans must perform in order to accept, condone, justify or deny the production--and destruction--of these animals. "If we have the capacity to imagine the suffering of an animal," Masson writes, "we also have the power to refuse to allow ourselves to think about that suffering." Further expanding this line of reasoning, Masson also posits some answers to the question of whether there is an ethical way to raise, kill and eat an animal.

Extra-Ordinary Chickens book

Great book. I have about 5 copies because everyone gives it to me for my birthday!

Yoga for chickens

My mom found this and though it was hysterical.

Must have books for your Chicken Library

American Standard of Perfection
Living with Chickens Everything you need to know
The Chicken Health Handbook - by Gail Damerow
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens - by Gail Damerow
Keep Chickens! Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs, and other Small Places - by B Kilarski
Chicken Coops - by Judy Pangman
Poultry of the World - by Loyl Stromberg
Conservation Breeding Handbook - by Phillip Sponenberg