Tag Archives | bees

Letter from the Editor

November 2, 2012 · Catherine Down

I have a confession to make: my interest in beekeeping borders on the unhealthy and obsessive. I once attended an international beekeeping conference in Italy.

In my defense, I was covering a story for Slow Food International on mono-varietal honey production (say that ten times fast). It wasn’t the mechanics of beekeeping itself that hooked me, or the deliciously sweet and sticky honeys I got to sample, but the fascinating eccentricities of the beekeepers themselves.

One man from Japan brought a rare honey filled with poisonous wasps that had drowned in the bottle. The adrenaline that coursed through their bodies

On Becoming a “BEEK”

November 2, 2012 · Christine Carroll

Smart Steps Before Starting Your Own Hive

Ask a “beek” (slang for a beekeeper) about honey, and many will say it is only a piece of the obsession. Indeed, beekeeping is diverse: part science, part hard physical labor, part group-think psychology, part backyard ecology and part folkloric magic. Undoubtedly, maintaining a hive of healthy honeybees is the most exhilarating micro-farming one can do within city limits.

Plus, the effort is helping to repopulate the planet with pollinators. With experts continually confounded by the causes and implications of Colony Collapse Disorder—the recent mass disappearance of worker bees—your new colony will create

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Thinking Inside the Box

November 2, 2012 · Christine Carroll

How DC’s DDOT Caught the Beekeeping Bug

Photography by Hannah Colclazier

On a sunny March morning, Joey Perez, Supervisory Forester for District Department of Transportation, had the privilege of welcoming eight queens to the city. Instead of scepters, however, this royal family sported something a little more menacing: stingers.

The newly transplanted queen bees, and their broods of about 10,000 female workers, are part of Mayor Vincent Gray’s administration-wide request to introduce sustainabiliy initiatives earlier this year. Beekeeping is DDOT’s creative eco-friendly effort to increase the city’s sustainability efforts. “Many departments planted trees,” explained the 31-year old forester, “but we

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Wax, Two Ways

November 2, 2012 · Jonna McKone

A Painter Uses her Backyard Bees as Art

Nassikas shows off the tools of her trade: beeswax and pigments

Photography and Text by Jonna McKone

At first glance, the old house and barn on a cul-de-sac in McLean look like the quiet home of any Virginia gardener. Walk past the tangle of kumquats and asparagus, beside the deep greens of forest that creep the length of the yard, along the bright blue of a swimming pool to the muted tones of an old barn, and you’ll find a large, open studio where Georgia Nassikas produces her paintings. Her portfolio consists

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