Saturday Linkages: Crimean Ovens, Ikea Distillery and Pallet Wood

...abinets http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/pallet-wood-kitchen-cabinets/ … Bees in Danger: California DFA Plans Pesticide Application in Carpinteria, Summerland http://www.noozhawk.com/article/bees_in_danger_california_dfa_plans_pesticide_application_20140303#.UxdqUKHYm88.twitter … How Dangerous Streets Limit People’s Experience of Their Neighborhood http://streetsblog.net/2014/02/28/how-dangerous-streets-limit-peoples-experience-of-their-neighbor...

Read…

Print and Internet Resources for Natural, No-Treatment Beekeeping

...” to describe systems like beehives that benefit from adversity. Challenge bees with an invasive parasite such as Varoa mites and they’ll eventually figure out a strategy to deal with them. That is, unless we humans decide to prop up weak colonies with misguided interventions. Taleb says, Crucially, if antifragility is the property of all those natural (and complex) systems that have survived, depriving these systems of volatility, randomness, and...

Read…

Why is My Squash Bitter?

...t to save seed and you take the precaution of taping up the flowers, bumblebees and solitary bees can chew their way through the tape to get at the pollen. In short it’s really easy to breed a freak Frankensquash or Frankencucumber, which can actually be toxic. Cynthia, a Root Simple reader in Texas, alerted me to an interesting hazard with bitter out-crossed Cucurbitaceae. According to Tony Glover, regional extension agent at the University of Al...

Read…

Asking the Right Questions

...eed to ask about the many subjects covered on this blog. Take for instance bees. Mainstream beekeepers ask, “How can I get more honey?” when they should be asking the same question Parsifal asks, “What ails thee?” That is, “What is in the long term interest of the bee’s health?” This is the question Michael Thiele and Kirk Anderson both ask. It’s a wise one to ask, since our health is inextricably entwined with that of the bees. Or think about ais...

Read…

How to Make a Bee Skep

...oneycomb, skeps are “bounced” over an empty skep to remove the bees. These bees are then combined with weaker hives and overwintered. It’s easy to see, from the hard work and level of skill required, why the modern and much easier to manipulate Langstroth style hive boxes replaced the skep. And skeps are technically illegal in the US as state bee inspectors require hives with moveable frames that can be easily inspected. There are some, however, w...

Read…