Last year, I volunteered at Montalvo Gardens in Saratoga, weeding and planting at the organic garden there under the guidance of Niki Ford. Niki Ford is now the Culinary Director at the SHED in Healdsburg.
Last weekend, April 27, 2013, Diane and I went to SHED, to listen to a talk a book signing, and to explore this new event center, restaurant and retail center and sampled some recipes from the book prepared by Niki Ford. It is an interesting place if a bit too upscale.
This weekend We again went to the SHED to hear a presentation from Michael Thiele about biodynamic beekeeping and alternative bee hives.
It was an extremely interesting talk, about how feral bees behave in the wild and how they build their hives. Bees typically build their hives in a circular pattern, with the , the brood, and the honey in a particular order.
Man interferes with this natural process by putting bees in boxes with artificial comb inserts which have the wrong sized cells. They disturb the bees by pulling out these artificial combs to take the honey out. Bee keeping these days is about making money off the bees, not about taking care of a very important living being. Bees are considered by Michael and now us as a living being, not as individual bees.
Bees need to be cared for whereever they decide to create a hive. As long as they don't cause harm they should be left alone. We need bees to pollinate plants and are important for life on this planet they need to be honored and protected.
More on this in a later post
No comments:
Post a Comment