Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

It may not be talked about in polite society. And most folks dont know what it is.

New Leader Orientation Meetings, Club Meetings and Achievement Nights...

Undergraduate degree in genetics? Check. Masters degree in fine arts? Check. Scientist and artist? Check. Such is the case with scientist-artist Donna Billick, who created the Miss Bee Haven six-foot bee sculpture in the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the University of California, Davis.

Collecting pollen and nectar is serious business. But when a native wild bee such as the Svastra obliqua expurgata, also called "the sunflower bee," forages on a Mexican hat flower, it adds a little gaiety to the scene.

When this insect flashes by you in your garden, at first glance you think: "Yellow jacket? Paper wasp? What's that?" Then it lands and you realize it's neither. It's a bee.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked; If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

When temperatures soar, look for honey bees to head for water resources. On the grounds of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, something as simple as a freshly watered potted plant will do.

Gardeners pinch them. Photographers shoot them. Hikers wonder what they are. The spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica) is a major agricultural pest. You'll see it on cucumbers, squash, corn, beans, watermelons, musk melons, cotton, tomatoes and other crops.

If the return of earthworms to farm fields is an indication of success, then Sano Farms is on the right track. I havent seen earthworms in these fields in years, said Firebaugh farmer Alan Sano.

Leading San Joaquin Valley conservation tillage farmers Scott Schmidt of Five Points and Dino Giacomazzi of Hanford recently hosted a group of 38 no-till farmers from Western and South Australia.