Welcome to the DC Beekeepers Alliance!
Honey BeeWelcome to Urban Beekeeping in the Nation's Capitol! We're as busy as honeybees getting this site up, and we hope that you'll forage back here as soon as we're ready!
Where is the DC Bee Community?
I'm feeling very alone in this market given the relative quiet on the local blogs regarding beekeeping, including this one. The local beekeeping associations, to which I belong, are also short on outreach or even modest organization. For instance, I wrote to one association asking about whether they are planning a bulk package buy for this spring, and I have received no response for 30 days.
I am please to offer the link to my blog which is updated regularly and which describes our initiatives and their modest successes for those who want to stay involved.
Adding supers to my rooftop hives, experimenting with foundation-less frames
Here is a link to a video showing our progress since taking delivery of our bees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Ej8UHnZ5k
Honey-laundering sting: another reason to buy local honey!
Yikes!
Interesting article about tainted, chemical- and antibiotic-laden honey from China being "laundered" and resold in the US as exotic or US-regional honey:
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/11-execs-6-foreign-firms-caught-in-huge-honey-sting/19618562
Cool-looking hive!
I saw this today, on the blog Poppytalk: http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/2010/08/weekend-project-beekeeping.html
I'm not sure how the design measures up against traditional bee hives, but it sure does look cool!
Contraband hives
I just picked up my colonies from www.sustainablebees.org in Purcellville. Awesome. Got stung about 10 times last evening as I moved the nuc frames into their permanent home. Those stings don't hurt as much as I remember from my youth, but emotional bee baggage remains. Perhaps I should have worn something more protective than a pair of gym shorts with the rest of my body bare. Thought I was the bee whisperer.
In just 24 hours these little girls are extremely active and are returning to the hive with copious pollen visible.