Boston Flora

Tag: Bees

  • Saturday, August 27, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Honey Harvest: From Hive to Jar

    Want to know how honey gets from hive to jar? Interested in tasting the sweet liquid right from the hive? This Northeast Organic Farming Association/Boston Nature Center workshop on Saturday, August 27, from 10 – 1, will cover all aspects of harvesting honey, from frame removal to jarring. Jean-Claude Bourrut will begin the workshop at the apiary, located at 500 Walk Hill Street in Mattapan, where participants will learn how to remove harvestable frames of honey. Afterward, the group will move inside to learn about extraction. This workshop focuses on participation and hands-on demonstration so that participants can do as well as watch. Cost: $25 members/ $30 non-members.  Jean-Claude Bourrut has been keeping honeybees for 20 years in urban and suburban settings. He currently manages a dozen hives in three apiaries. Pre-registration is required for those who do not have their own veil. There are only 7 extra veils (see Mata Hari enacting The Dance of the Seven Veils, below) so sign up soon! To register for the workshop or for more information visit www.nofamass.org or contact Laura Eppstein by email at laura@nofamass.org or by phone at 617-913-0538.

  • Saturday, July 23, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm – Urban Beekeeping

    Get on board with one of the hottest do-it-yourself trends that has The New York Times all abuzz! Let Noah Wilson-Rich, South End resident beekeeper and owner of Boston’s Best Beesâ„¢ dissuade any preconceived notions you may have about bees and give you insight to why they are being threatened. You’ll learn how to pick a location for a hive, set-up techniques, the best way to manage your new army, how to extract honey and creative ideas for your harvest! Every student will make and take home a beehive frame (the structural element that holds the comb within the hive) and a jar of all natural beeswax lip balm, along with a jar of honey that you helped to extract! This Urban Beekeeping class will take place at the Boston Center for Adult Education, 122 Arlington Street, Boston, on Saturday, July 23 from 11 – 2, and the fee to attend is $43 for BCAE members, $50 for nonmembers, with a $10 materials fee.  Register at www.bcae.org or call 617-267-4430.

  • Saturday, May 7, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm – Hive Visit and Spring Management

    Please join the Northeast Organic Farming Association/Massachusetts Chapter for a Hive Visit and Spring Management morning on Saturday, May 7 beginning at 11 am at the Boston Nature Center, 500 Walk Hill Street in Mattapan. During this springtime apiary inspection, participants will have the opportunity to closely observe bees in their habitat. Jean Claude Bourrut will begin the workshop by opening hives to check on spring development. He will discuss bee life and activity within various hives (Top Bar, Nucleus, Langstroth eight and ten frames), hive management on a natural system, and hive splitting. Bring a veil and hive tool if you have them. Registration for those without veils will be limited to 7. Anyone with a veil (more up to date than the one pictured) may register. Cost: $25 NOFA members/ $30 Non-members. Jean-Claude Bourrut has been keeping honeybees for 20 years in urban and suburban settings. He currently manages a dozen hives in three apiaries.  To register for the workshop or for more information visit www.nofamass.org or contact Laura Eppstein at laura@nofamass.org.

  • Friday, April 8 – Sunday, April 10 – Bangor 2011 Flower Show

    The Bangor 2011 Flower Show will take place Friday, April 8 – Sunday, April 10 at the Bangor Auditorium  See eight garden displays as they compete for Best in Show and People’s Choice Award, while sampling from over 50 vendor booths to supply all your gardening needs.  This is the 20th anniversary of the show, general admission is a mere $5 at the door, and times are 10 am – 8 pm Friday and Saturday, 11 – 4 on Sunday.  Events will include A Taste of Local Color cooking demonstrations, Get the Honey Bee Buzz, Garden for Your Health seminars from St. Joseph Healthcare, Public Community Gardens presentation, Water Wise Gardening, Sustainable Landscape Design, Creative Container Gardening, Fruit Tree Tips for Amateurs, Kids Programs, Orchid Society Tea Party with the Eastern Maine Orchid Society, True Living Organics, a juried flower show, and more.  Contact Wendy Warren at 207-992-4255, or email wendy.warren@bangormaine.gov, or log on to www.bangorgardenshow.com. Image of flowers from the 2010 Bangor Flower Show from daliaphotography on Flickr.

  • Monday, February 28, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – The Pollinator Garden

    Join the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts for a Morning of Horticulture on Monday, February 28 from 10 – 12 at the Espousal Center in Waltham, Massachusetts.  Kim Smith, author of Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities, will speak on The Pollinator Garden: Make your Gardens Inviting and Sustainable to Birds, Bees and Butterflies.  The cost of the program is $5, and you may pay at the door.  For directions and more information, log on to www.gcfm.org.

  • Sunday, February 27, 2:00 pm – Vanishing of the Bees

    Where did all the bees go? If you’ve been aware of the news in the past few years, we’re sure you’re familiar with CCD: Colony Collapse Disorder. Discovered first in late 2006, hordes of bees literally….disappeared. The worker bees leave for the day and never return, abandoning the queen, the young, the eggs. Everything. So maybe the darn queen was crackin’ the whip too hard. But maybe not — the theories abound. Was it a virus? Environmental changes? Malnutrition? An affect of pesticides?

    Want to explore these questions? If so, come to the Small Metcalf Hall in Boston University’s GSU, 775 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, on Sunday, February 27th at 2:00PM for the film Vanishing of the Bees, which explores the issues in greater detail, outlining what led up to the problem and what can be done differently going forward in order to prevent it from happening again. We’re following the film with a panel of local beekeepers and honey makers (Golden Rule Honey, Allandale Honey Co & more!) discussing their work… And then we’ll get to taste their bounty! It’s your chance to learn the nuances of honey and talk to the folks that make it. And understand exactly why we need to be informed and make changes to prevent honeybees from disappearing again. This screening is generously co-sponsored by Slow Food Tufts and Slow Food BU. $5 fee. You may reserve a space on line at www.slowfoodboston.com/reserve.cfm?eno=873.

  • Saturday, January 22, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Beekeeping for Gardeners

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop, to be held Saturday, January 22 from 9 – 12,  is for everyone with an interest in honeybees and beekeeping. Learn how to start a honey bee colony, the seasonal management required to keep a healthy hive of bees and the role of pollinators and their relationship to flowering plants. Topics provide an overview of the beekeeper’s job, and will help new beekeepers, or those who are considering becoming a beekeeper, to make the correct choices starting a backyard apiary. Equipment and tools used by the beekeeper will be discussed and step by step instructions for starting a new colony of bees will be covered. At the end of the workshop participants should have a solid understanding of how to successfully begin as a new beekeeper.

    Dan Conlon owns Warm Colors Apiary in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. Warm Colors maintains bee yards in western Mass for honey production, and provides pollination services on area farms. As a full-time beekeeper, concerned with the decline of all bees, Dan focuses on management that improves Queen development & health, colony nutrition, and reduces the environmental risks threatening bees. He is President of the Massachusetts Beekeepers Association, and was recognized as the Eastern Apicultural Society’s 2004 Beekeeper of the Year, and the Massachusetts 2005 Beekeeper of the Year.

    $37 BBG members, $45 non members. Call 413-298-3926, or email info@berkshirebotanical.org for more information.

  • Saturday, June 12 – Sunday, June 13 – Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers

    The final weekend of The New York Botanical Garden’s exhibit Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers will take place Saturday and Sunday, June 12 and 13.  On Saturday, from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, in the Perennial Garden, there will be an all day program entitled Death, Bees, and Roses. Participate in a thematic reading of Emily Dickinson’s poems.  Select some of your favorite Dickinson poems relating to death, bees, or roses and join in celebrating the life and works of this great American poet.  Or, also in the Perennial Garden on Sunday from 10 – 6, the same program will be held, but with the title and topics Flowers, Birds, and Trees.

    Then, on Sunday, from 4 – 5 in the Ross Lecture Hall, Judith Farr, professor of English Emerita at Georgetown University and author of The Gardens of Emily Dickinson, presents a lecture and slide show that delves into the topic of Dickinson’s habit of referring to her own two acre garden as “my Eden” or “Eden in Amherst” and how this image of Eden that prevails in her poems and letters corresponds to the images of Eden that appear in the works of the American Hudson River School and Impressionist painters.

    For complete information, log on to www.nybg.org.  $20 adult ticket price, $18 seniors and students with valid ID, and $8 children 2 – 12.  Co-presented with The Poetry Society of America.

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