- Author: Chris M. Webb
Beekeeping is also known as apiculture. There are several benefits to maintaining honey bee colonies including: honey, beeswax, and crop pollination.
UC Davis Department of Entomology and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Division (UC ANR) have great resources for apiarists.
Much about bees can be found directly from the Department of Entomology’s home page . The site is brimming with links and is very easy to navigate.
Electronic versions of Apiculture Newsletters going back to 1994 are available here. The newsletters can be sorted and viewed chronologically or by content.
UC ANR’s Western Apicultural Society (WAS) is a “non-profit, educational, beekeeping organization founded in 1978 for the benefit and enjoyment of all beekeepers in western North America.” At the WAS site you will find the WAS Journal which is another great resource for apiarists.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
On Saturday March 26, UC Hansen Agricultural Center will offer a free educational presentation, titled Beefriending Your Local Bees.
From the Hansen site:
“Scientists estimate that one third of the world's food crops and four-fifths of its flowering plants depend on some form of insect pollination, mainly by bees. Yet honeybees and native bees around the globe are declining in numbers.
Discover the fascinating world of bees, pollination and its impact on eco and agricultural systems, observe collections of native bees and demonstration on how to build native bee nests.”
UCCE’s Anna Howell will be presenting. While the presentation is free, reservations are required. Details and reservation instructions can be found here.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Anna Howell has recently begun work as a lab assistant in the Ventura County Cooperative Extension office. Ms. Howell received a Masters degree in Entomology from the University of Arizona.
Her graduate research focused on the conservation of native bees in the Sonoran Desert and how habit fragmentation is affecting their populations. More recently she has been focusing on population status of native bees and how they will be affected by increased urbanization and habitat destruction. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge of native pollinators and is available for talks and lectures. To learn more about Anna and native bees check out her blog, Anna’s Bee World blog.
For her work here at the UCCE office, she will be assisting Oleg Daugovish and Maren Mochizuki with strawberry production research and education outreach.
We are happy to have such a knowledgeable and enthusiastic addition to our office!
- Author: Chris M. Webb
The national Cooperative Extension System has an incredibly informative and interesting website. From their site:
“eXtension is an interactive learning environment delivering the best, most researched knowledge from the smartest land-grant university minds across America. eXtension connects knowledge consumers with knowledge providers – experts who know their subject matter inside out.”
Current resource areas are broken down in the following way:
- Alerts
- Community -- including planning, zoning, geospatial technology
- Disaster Issues -- including agrisecurity, floods, wildfire
- Energy -- including farm, home and wood energy
- Family -- including food safety, parenting, personal finance
- Farm -- including bee healthy, dairy, organic agriculture
- Pest management -- including pest management in and around structures, wildlife damage management
- Youth – science, engineering and technology for youth
In addition to a wide assortment of articles, an Ask the Experts section is also available for people to ask questions. Some of the resources are also available in Spanish.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
From time to time our office receives calls from residents with bee swarms on their properties. Understandably, those who call with this problem are typically rather panicked.
We don’t make house calls to remove bees. In fact, we don’t make house calls at all. We are all about providing science-based information to residents, so that they can make informed decisions that are best for their situation.
Happily, we have great information about bee swarms right on our website. Once at our site you will learn that:
- Swarming bees are not dangerous, unless they are severely provoked. Bees sting in defense of their young or their food supply. Swarming bees have neither.
- If the bees have moved into your house, they should be dealt with by a qualified exterminator. If there is a cluster of bees in your trees or bushes, you can leave them alone, and they will most likely move on in a few days.
The rest of our information about bee swarms can be found by clicking here.
UC Davis entomology department's "Removing swarms and established colonies from private property" may also be helpful.
Bee swarm
Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey
author of UC ANR's Bug Squad blog
Bee swarm
Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey
author of UC ANR's Bug Squad blog
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