How To Capture a Bee Swarm With Kirk Anderson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChsoSwIxcwM Swarm season is here in Southern California and will arrive elsewhere in North America with the coming of spring. In this video, beekeeper Kirk Anderson shows you how to catch a swarm. It’s the best way, in my opinion, to get bees to start your own hive. Why? Swarms, unlike packaged bees, are free. They are also local, meaning the bees know how to deal with your micro-climate. To capture a swarm you: Spr...

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How To Make Hoshigaki (Dried Persimmons)

...single one consumed by squirrels in just one day. So indoors is the way to go. Hauben’s class was really great–we went home with a crate of fruit and even our own bamboo pole. She teaches in the Santa Barbara area and you can find out more about her classes on her website: www.marketforays.com For more detailed Hochigaki directions there is an Instructable. I’ll report back in a few weeks on how our batch went. Update: Here’s a pic of our fruit af...

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The Upside Down Fire

...the same method with smaller sticks and a more bushcraft-y technique.I’d recommend watching both. The only thing I’d add to the technique in the video above is that I would lay down a larger layer of thin sticks (the 1″-2″ diameter stuff) on top of the big logs. Somehow he pulls it off with remarkably little small stuff. I found that if I didn’t have a good supply of twigs and small branches on top, the big logs in the under layers didn’t catch fi...

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