109 Doubt is Our Product: Bees, Chemicals and Academia

...a State Beekeeping Association oppose legislation that would have required labeling neonicotinoid treated nursery plants? These are just a few of the controversial questions covered in this week’s episode of the podcast. My guests are Stacy Malkan co-director of US Right to Know and beekeeper Terry Oxford of Urban Bee San Francisco. Links: Follow the Honey: 7 ways pesticide companies are spinning the bee crisis to protect profits “Scientists Loved...

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Paper Wasps: Your New BFFs

...ative European variant is more the wasp you will likely be dealing with in urban/suburban North America, because unlike their native counterparts, Euro wasps aren’t shy. They are the ones who will build a nest by your back door, or on the side of your mailbox. Paper wasps build those distinctive, easy to recognize papery nests made of many cells. There are other types of native wasps which build with different materials, such as mud. Honeybee colo...

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The Great Beekeeping Debate

...untry is a different question than how to keep a few hives in a biodiverse urban area. To be fair, the first question is essential since it’s how we currently keep everyone fed. But much of the advice given to large scale beekeepers does not always apply to small scale backyard beekeepers. The hubris can go both ways. Those of us on the natural beekeeping side can also think we understand the whole better than we do. We can fall into the same redu...

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Bee Trellis

...rellis to surround the hive boxes that reside next to her shed. In a small urban yard a trellis around your bees will keep everyone happy. Bees naturally tend to fly upwards after leaving the hive but the addition of a fence keeps the few sideways stragglers from negative canine and homo sapiens interactions. As usual, the design process around Root Simple begins with the realization that our 1920s house looks best when surrounded by fuddy-duddy l...

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Saturday Tweets: Danes and Their Garbage, Big Food and #BlackCatAppreciationDay

...15 Check out @NatGeo and their #rat story. https://t.co/PYnA7ARjmJ — SoCal Urban Wildlife (@SCUWMCouncil) August 20, 2015 Spectacular, swirling custom-built stone walls and furniture via @BoingBoing http://t.co/duIaDhKwPo — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 21, 2015 Scientists study the impact of the drought on California's giant sequoias http://t.co/xduhylrmol via @SFGate — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 21, 2015 Latest Video: how to grill s...

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