Special thanks to Richard Phillips for the caption:
Birds and Beers is in Ohio tomorrow! There's going to a be a special edition of Birds and Beers in Belleville, OH when I come for the Audubon State Assembly on October 17, 2008!
Birds and Beers
At K.C.'s Steak and Ribs
419-886-2159
6pm - 8pm (or when people go home)
Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders of all abilities--if you're interested in birds, you're invited. You can meet other birders--maybe find a carpool buddy, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists, share some digiscoping tips--the sky is the limit. It's low key and it's fun.
I took a frame (with permission) to the MN Hobby Beekeepers Association meeting on Tuesday night. Beekeepers came up to smell the frame and reached the conclusion: not American Foul Brood, so we do not have to burn the equipment--whoot! I was made fun of for ignoring this hive and I said, "But she was so friendly--we should have called her Lebowski, she was so friendly and yet didn't really do much of anything."
"Oh, you know," a wisened beekeeper said, "an overly friendly hive is a sign that something is wrong with the brood or the queen."
I've come to the conclusion that just bees themselves are a sign that something is wrong with the hive. I'm sorry we lost this hive, but at the same time, even if we had noticed much sooner that she was queenless, I doubt I would have attempted a requeening...it just does not seem to work for us.
Incidentally, the MN Hobby Beekeepers Association has a Youth Scholarship Program. The idea is to get kids interested in beekeeping and to give a kid a chance to try it out. Tuesday night we got to listen to a couple of kids who tried their hand a hive this summer. It was pretty cool to see starting a hive through their perspective. Kids can apply through the website and winners get a free membership to association, tuition to go to the Beekeeping Short Course (which I took and HIGHLY recommend you take if you are considering starting a hive), a hive, some starter bees, some beekeeping gear, and a mentor. Check it out!
I just thought this was a cool photo of the Kitty hive hidden in the fall colors (the Kitty and Kelli hives are both doing well, although we need to get Kitty inside the anti bear fence). I have to say, I had a weird moment yesterday, courtesy of social networking online. I was at the Mississippi River Visitor Center at the Science Museum and I saw a women walking by in the lobby. Without any hesitation I nodded a "hello" and she returned it. Then, we both had the moment of "Why did I just say hi to that person?"
I knew in my gut that I should say hello but didn't know how I knew here. Five minutes later, she came over and said, "Are you on Facebook?"
That was how we knew each other! We had a good laugh about how we had each noticed we worked at the Science Museum and had mutual friends but never saw each other. Add that to the fact that we said hi to each other before each of us knew why we were saying hi, without having met face to face before, it was weird. Turns out that she also knows someone Non Birding Bill and I shared a house with in college. The world get smaller every day.
Ah, the craziness of social networking online.