Day dreaming about bees
Even though we've turned the calendrical corner from winter to spring, the weather in the San Francisco Bay Area is frightful with sprin...
Even though we’ve turned the calendrical corner from winter to spring, the weather in the San Francisco Bay Area is frightful with spring rains and chilly (to us) temperatures. We haven’t been able to inspect the bees, although we really need to go through the hives and make sure the girls are building up their numbers.
During inclement weather, gardeners dream over plant catalogs, garden books (Oh, the hours I’ve spent immersed in the the Sunset Western Garden book!), and garden websites. Would you expect beekeepers to be any different?
Here are some beekeeping links to keep you busy during any last gasps of winter that are breathing down the neck of your spring and keeping you from beekeeping.
1. Linda’s Bees This is one of our favorite sites, and it is huge, with tons of information on beekeeping, honey extraction, and making things out of wax and honey.
2. The Kittalog Okay, so this blog also features poodles along with bees in Colorado. Also food, gardening, and books. What’s not to like?
3. Beesource Beekeeping Forums The saying goes, ask 10 beekeepers a question and you’ll get 10 different answers. This forum proves that 10 beekeepers are just as likely to give you 15 different answers. Forum members will respond to your questions quickly (sometimes within an hour), and you can also search postings for any bee troubles you’re having. You can learn a lot just by browsing past threads. We spend a lot of time on this site.
4. Backwards Beekeepers We’ve profiled blogger Kirk Anderson on the One Block Diet blog before. He leads a group of beekeepers in Southern California. Kirk doesn’t post the audio Kirkobeeo report (my favorite part of his blog) as often as he used to, but the blog is still a good read, and I always learn something. And being that he’s in L.A., he even features some show business type folks keeping bees, such as T.V. producer and Special Agent Lotus.
5. Scientific Beekeeping Of course we like Randy Oliver’s site, with its in-depth articles on beekeeping issues. There’s info on mite control, fat and skinny bees, and the dreaded nosema.
6. Anarchy Apiaries I love this website, even though it’s from New York state, and therefore not anywhere near the Western half of the United States (and therefore out of our venue). But it’s so irreverent, yet reverent, fresh and bold, that it makes my list everytime.
If you simply want to browse beekeeping catalogs, here are quick links to the major suppliers.
