This is the backside of my bee yard.

Opening up my hive.

Looking good, my girls have been busy!

I opened up the hive today for the first time since installing my bees on April 10. thay have been very busy and are producing very well.

I am burning up in this suit! Way to hot for our weather!!

Well, in all honesty he was trying to get away from the rooster. Rocky turned very hostile a few weeks ago and started flogging everyone including the cats! He really tore me up and I am just getting well from the deep puncture wounds he gave. Alas, poor Rocky, he is no more.

I have had my bees for about two weeks now. They seem to be doing well. I am loving it.

They are still feeding on sugar water, but I also see them all over the yard. We have plenty of things blooming so there should be lots of pollen.

I have just the one hive. It is a Top Bar Hive.

My bee yard is a 10ft X10ft X 6ft dog kennel. I have plants vines on two sides to help shield them from the winds and the neighbors.

This is something I have always wanted to do. So far, so good!

THE CHICKEN HOUSE

1. The chicken house should be large enough for roosts, nesting boxes, water and feed. Usually 3 square feet for each bird is good. If you build it smaller, there is a higher chance of disease and cannibalism. The floor should be covered with straw or wood shavings.

2. The roosts should be 2 inch diameter poles laid horizontally 2 feet to 3 feet off the ground. It is good to have about 1 foot of space per bird for sleeping on the roost.

3. Nesting boxes should be one foot square and placed 1-2 feet off the floor. Placing them on an inside wall is good. For 25 birds you will need 8-10 nests. Line the boxes with hay or wood shavings.

4. A good poultry house protects the chickens from the weather, predators and injury. Some areas have problems with theft, so you will have to take that into consideration when building.

5. The house should be free of drafts, but with adequate ventilation when needed. Build it in a well drained area.

6. The larger the chicken run, the better it will be. If you have a problem with predators, or theft, then the run should be covered with wire.

7. Provide shade in the run.

8. The house should have a window.

9. Open the door and window inward.

10. Place the house on concrete blocks if possible, to hinder snakes and rodents.

11. Bury the wire along the run border one foot deep and toe it out about 6 inches.

12. If there is still a problem with predators, lock the chickens up in the house at night.

13. Provide some sort of vegetation such as millet or some kind of tall leafy vegetation, to provide cover for the chickens.

14. Make the appearance of the poultry house nice. If you live in town, this is especially important. Keep the exterior painted and well maintained.

15. Build the roof high enough for your purposes. Make the nests, feeders, roosts etc. within easy access. Make the house easy to clean.

16. Install one light over the feeding and watering areas.

17. Once a year you will need to disinfect the house, so use building materials that will make that easier.

18. Slope the floor toward the door, so when you do disinfect the house, it will be easier to spray and dry out.

19. A cupola is good ventilation for the top of a chicken house.

20. If you live in a cold climate, be sure and insulate the house.

21. Keep the chicken house dry.

22. It is a good idea to put wire above the nests from the front of the nests angled up and back to the wall behind the nests. This prevents roosting on the nests.

23. Have a perch in front of the nests.

24. Have the front board of each nest removable for easy cleaning of the nests.

Hen: mature female

* Chick: newborn

* Clutch: group of eggs

* Pullet: immature female

* Cockeral: immature male

* Rooster: mature male

*Laying Breeds: Small bodies, they do not need as much food as the meat birds to maintain their muscle mass. They are for laying eggs as opossed to eating. ;0) Of course, if you really wanted to eat them you could. LOL

*Meat Breeds: These are normally called fryers, broilers, or roosters. The time to slaughter the birds is relatively quick, so a back yard flock could be raised and butchered within 6 months or less.

*Dual-Pupose Breeds: These chickens are good for both eggs and meat.

*Chicken Starter or Mash: This is feed for newly hatched chickens, I prefer the medicated kind.

*Pullet Grower: This is feed for those chickens that you are trying to fatten up to eat.

*Chicken Layer Feed: This is feed for those chickens that are laying eggs.

Roosts: This for the small laying flock, it is a board (or something) that is up above the floor of the coop for the chicken/s to sit on.

Guineas are good for bug and insect control.

  I am so excited. my first bees should be arriving this month. I have been trying to bone up on my bee knowledge! This is something I have found helpful.

AFB = American Foulbrood

 AHB = Africanized Honey Bees

 DCA = Drone Congregation Area

 EFB = European Foulbrood

 EHB = European Honey Bees 

 IMPOV = In My Point Of View

 KTBH = Kenya Top Bar Hive (one with sloped sides)

 OMB = open-meshed board  (see SBB)

 POV = Point Of View

 QMP = Queen Madibular Pheromone

 SBB = screened bottom board (see OMB)

 SC = Small Cell (4.9mm cells, for those of you mathematically inclined)

 SHB = small hive beetle

SMR = Supressed Mite Reproduction (usually referring to a queen)

T-Mites = Tracheal Mites

 TBH = Top Bar Hive

TM = Terramycin or Tracheal Mites depending on the context

 TTBH = Tanzanian Top Bar Hive (one with vertical sides)

QMP = Queen Madibular Pheromone

 ULBN = Unlimited Brood Nest (no queen excluder, usually all the same
size boxes or extra brood boxes)

 V-Mites = Varroa Mites

I found this at Mother Earth News. I love the magazine and never throw a copy away. Clink on the title to go to the page for more articles.

A Better Way to Raise Rabbits

by LUILLA P. THOMPSON:

Rabbits have always been a welcome part of our homestead. Cottontails are economical to raise, provide us with a steady supply of meat for the table and manure for the garden (my strawberries were always puny until I began to bury rabbit pellets between the plants) . . . plus come in handy as bartering material.

We are, in short, mighty fond of our bunnies but I do hate to clean row after row of small cages, and place feed and water in dozens of individual pens. And I certainly don't like to see my animals shivering in their cages on a cold winter's day. (Here in Nebraska, we get a lot of wind during the winter, which makes it even harder to keep our rabbits cozy on a minus-15° day.)

Several years ago—after losing a number of litters to the cold—I said to myself, "There's got to be a better way to care for rabbits!" And I was right: There is a better way. All it involves is taking the bunnies out of their cages and moving them indoors . . . into a rabbit house.

Our rabbit house consists of an 8' X 20' outbuilding with a southeastern exposure and storm windows along the east- and south-facing walls. (The building's favorable exposure—and its storm windows—made it a lot less difficult to keep warm than it could've been.) To convert the structure into a dormitory for our rabbits, we spread six inches of coarse gravel over the dirt floor . . then covered the ground completely with sheets of recycled corrugated tin, leaving about 1/4" of space around the edges of each 3' X 6' sheet for good drainage. (We anchored these sheets to the ground with large spikes.) After this, we covered the whole floor with twelve inches of straw.

Next, I gathered together all the orange crates, ammunition boxes, and other wooden containers I could find, boarded the boxes up (leaving just enough of an entry space to accommodate one doe), and arranged them along two of the building's walls. Over these nest boxes I scattered a couple feet of prairie hay and straw . . . then left a large mound of the material in the center of the room. Finally, I put down one long trough for water and another for feed . . . and the rabbit house was complete.

Now it was time to move the bunnies into their new home. Frankly, I was a little apprehensive: I worried that my two registered bucks (a New Zealand and a California Giant) might fight and injure one another, or that the does themselves would start quarreling. Also, the nights were already getting pretty cold (it was late fall) and I didn't know if the rabbits could take both the low temperatures and the change of homes.

As it turned out, my fears proved groundless. I installed the 18 does, then the two bucks . . . and the animals had a field day! They were too busy romping around and having a good time to even consider quarreling. In short, my bunnies—at least—instantly adapted to their new "loafing barn" type home. (I suggest, however, that you watch yore animals for the first few hours they're together this way to make sure there's no fighting. Other rabbits may react differently than mine.)

One thing I soon noticed was that each doe had selected a box for her own and would run inside it whenever a stranger approached the building. (Whenever I walked into the building, though, the animals milled around my feet like a flock of chickens.) Since there were more rabbits than boxes, I decided to add extra crates until there was a 1:1 ratio between bunnies and hiding places. (I also piled several ammunition boxes and boards at one end of the house for the baby rabbits to hide in.)

At the end of four weeks, we noticed our first litter in one of the new boxes. Other litters followed quickly. The nest boxes seemed to be working out quite well: The pregnant does filled their crates with straw from the pile in the center of the floor and securely plugged the entrances to their nests with more straw and hay. I never disturbed these nests (or even checked for dead rabbits) until the little ones were at least a week old. All I did was pour a pail of feed (rabbit pellets mixed with cracked corn) and a pail of water into the troughs once a day and feed the bunnies alfalfa every other day. (In addition, I added straw to the pile in the center of the room about once every seven days.)

Within a few weeks, we noticed small bunnies coming to the troughs at feeding time. When spring finally arrived, we had 70 rabbits of frying size, smaller bunnies everywhere, and babies in most of the nest boxes. Our problem now was not keeping our rabbits warm . . . but keeping them from smothering each other!

To give the bunnies more room to run around, we decided to build them a large pen outside the rabbit house. We made the chicken-wire enclosure 20' long and 20' wide, and tall enough so that my six-foot husband could walk around in it without stooping over. (The top was covered with chicken wire to keep hawks, cats, and other varmints from making meals of our bunnies.) To ensure good drainage, I dug a 2' X 6' X 2'-deep trench in the center of the pen, filled it with gravel, and covered it with chicken wire. Then I spread two inches of concrete over the entire pen area, taking care to fill in the cracks around the posts and see that the chicken wire was embedded in the concrete.

The rabbits loved their new run. Left to themselves, they played outdoors throughout the night and early morning (weather permitting), then slept in the rabbit house during the day.

Every four or five months we had to clean the rabbit house. This, however, was a simple matter: We just pushed the wheelbarrow right into the pen, loaded it up with old litter (straw mixed with manure and alfalfa stems) from the floor of the building, and carted the load to the compost pile. Afterwards, I took care to place the boxes that had babies in them back in the same spots where they'd been before.

Our rabbits were so prolific that we sometimes found it necessary to restrict breeding temporarily. We did this by partitioning off a corner in the pen, placing an old ammunition box in that corner for shelter, and retiring the bucks to this compartment for 30 days or so.

We ate rabbits all summer, sold great numbers of bunnies, and put 65 fryers in the deep freeze that first year. Our rabbits not only bred more vigorously in their "dormitory" than they did in cages, but they seemed healthier and happier too. And my workload was cut by a good 80% or more.

After raising rabbits this way for more than five years now, I'm convinced it's the only way to go. If you're tired of cooping your bunnies up in cages, why not try the rabbit-house method yourself? All you need is a small building and enough hay, straw, or alfalfa to keep the animals occupied. The rabbits will do the rest!

Candy for Your Honeybees

Here is a recipe for making the "candy" that is
used for winter feeding using a "candy board"
(an inner cover turned with the flat side up placed
over the cluster) This was copied from "The Buzz",
which is distributed by Phil Craft.

" A small-batch fondant recipe:
Mix 2 c granulated sugar,
1.5 c of water,
2 Tablespoons corn syrup,
and 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar.

Stir until sugar dissolves and continue to heat
without stirring until the mixture reaches 238
degrees F. (Use a candy thermometer.)

If you use bottled corn syrup from the grocery
store, make sure it is "light" corn syrup, not
"dark". Dark corn syrup has molasses in it, which
should not be fed to bees. Pour the mixture onto a
cool surface and let it sit until cool enough to
touch. Then beat the candy until it is thick and pour
it into a thin container or mold, like a cookie sheet
lined with wax paper, to harden.

The candy can be broken up.

Another recipe for larger batches calls for 15 pounds
sugar, 3 pounds corn syrup, 4 cups water, and 1/2 teaspoon
cream of tartar. Make the candy in the same manner as the
small-batch recipe. Cooking and beating are the keys, and placed
over the inner cover.

Alternatively, an empty honey super can be placed on
top of the brood chamber and the candy placed on stick
supports on the top of the brood bars. Some beekeepers will
make a special small fondant feeder similar to an inner
cover, but deeper (1 inch or more). The candy can be
poured into this feeder and placed over the brood box upside
down.
by Kent Williams

My bee's will be coming this spring. I am a little nervous. Hope I don't mess up!

Honeybee Plants

Althea (Rose of Sharon)
Alfalfa
Almond
American Holly
Anise
Apple trees (Fruit trees in general-all)
Apricot
Apriums
Ash
Asparagus
Asters
Azolla-floating fern
Barberry
Basil
Beans, garden
Bee Balm
Beet
Birch
Bittersweet
Bladder Campion
Blackberry
Black Cherry
Black-eyed Susan
Black Medic
Blanket Flower
Bluebells
Blue-Eyed Grass
Bird's Foot Trefoil
Blueberry
Blue Weed
Borage
Brocholli
Buckeye
Buckthorn
Buckwheat
Buffalo Berry
Butter And Eggs
Buttercups
Butterfly bush
Butterfly Weed
Button Bush
Cabbage
Cardinal Flower
Cardinal Shrub
Carnations
Carrots
Catalpa tree
Catnip
Cedar
Chestnut
Cherry Tree
Chickweed
Chicory
Chinquapin
Chives
Cinnamon Basil
Cinquefoil
Chives
Choke Cherry
Cleome
Coleous
Clematis
Climbing nightshade
Clover, crimsonClover, SweetClover, White Dutch
Collards
Columbine
Comfrey
Cone Flower
Coreopsis
Coriander
Corn, tassels
Cosmos
Cotton
Cotton Tree
Cottonwood
Cowpeas
Cranberry Crocus
Crepemyrtle
Crysantheum
Cucumbers
Currant
Dandelion
Dahlia
Daylily
Dewberry
Dianthius
Dill
Dock
Dogbane
Dogwood
Echinacea
Elderberry
Fireweed
Elder
Fennel
Fennugreek
Fig
Flax
Fleabane
Forsythia
Four O'clocks
Foxglove
Garlic
Geranium (Wild)
Goat's Beard
Golden Raintree (Chaintree)
Goldenrod
Gooseberry
Gourds
Grape
Hawkweed (yellow, orange)
Hawkweed, (mouse ear)
Hazelnut
Hibiscus
Hollyhock
Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle Shrub
Horhound
Huckleberry
Hyssop
Iron Weed
Joe Pye Weed
Johnson Grass
Kudzu
Lambs Ear
Lantana
Larkspur
Lavander
Lemonbalm
Lespedeza
Lilac
Lima Bean
Locust tree
Loganberry
Loveage
Lupine
Magnolia
Mallow
Marjoram
Maple Trees
Marigold, french
Melons
Milkweed
Mimosa
Mints
Mistletoe
Mock Orange
Morning Glory
Mossy stonecrop
Motherwort
Mullein
Muscadines
Mustard
Nectarines
Nettle
Oak Trees (Pollen & honwydew)
Okra
Onion
Oregano (wild)Pansy
Parsley
Peach Trees
Pear
Peony
Pennyroyal
Penstemon
Pepper
Pepperbush
Peppermint
Persimmon
Petunias
Phlox
Photina
Pigweed
Pineapple Sage
Pincushion Flower
Plantain, narrow leaf
Plucots
Plums
Pointillia
Poison Ivy
Poison Oak
Poison Sumac
Poplar Trees
Privet Hedge
Pumpkins
Purple Loosestrife
Pussy Toes
Queen Anne's Lace
Quince
Radish
Ragweed
Rape
Raspberry(wild & tame)
Redbud
Rose, Wild
Rosemary
Sage
Salvia
Salvinia-a water plant
Sassafras
Sedums
Service Berry
Snapdragons
Snowball Bush
Sorghum
Sourwood
Soybean
Spearmint
Spice Shrub
Squash
Sumac
St. John's Wort
Stitchwort
Strawberry (tame)
Strawberry (wild)
Sunflower
Sweet Gum
Sweet Peas
Thistles
Thyme
Tickseed
Trumpet Vine
Tulip Tree (Poplar)
Turnip
Valerian
Verbena
Veronica
Vetch
Violets
Vitex
Walnut
Willow Trees
Woad
Wood Sorrel, Yellow
Yarrow
Zinnia

Blue, violet, and pink are the flower colors most
attractive to bees. Next are orange ones and yellows.
Some flowers, such as roses and poppies, provide
pollen but no nectar. And some plants, such as privet,
red bud, and English ivy, lure honeybees but produce
strong, unpleasant-tasting honey.

Honeybee Plants

Althea (Rose of Sharon)
Alfalfa
Almond
American Holly
Anise
Apple trees (Fruit trees in general-all)
Apricot
Apriums
Ash
Asparagus
Asters
Azolla-floating fern
Barberry
Basil
Beans, garden
Bee Balm
Beet
Birch
Bittersweet
Bladder Campion
Blackberry
Black Cherry
Black-eyed Susan
Black Medic
Blanket Flower
Bluebells
Blue-Eyed Grass
Bird's Foot Trefoil
Blueberry
Blue Weed
Borage
Buckeye
Buckthorn
Buckwheat
Buffalo Berry
Butter And Eggs
Buttercups
Butterfly bush
Butterfly Weed
Button Bush
Cabbage
Cardinal Flower
Cardinal Shrub
Carnations
Carrots
Catalpa tree
Catnip
Cedar
Chestnut
Cherry Tree
Chickweed
Chicory
Chinquapin
Chives
Cinnamon Basil
Cinquefoil
Chives
Choke Cherry
Cleome
Coleous
Clematis
Climbing nightshade
Clover, crimsonClover, SweetClover, White Dutch
Columbine
Comfrey
Cone Flower
Coreopsis
Coriander
Corn, tassels
Cosmos
Cotton
Cottonwood
Cowpeas
Cranberry Crocus
Crepe myrtle
Crysantheum
Cucumbers
Currant
Dandelion
Dahlia
Daylily
Dewberry
Dianthius
Dill
Dock
Dogbane
Dogwood
Echinacea
Elderberry
Fireweed
Elder
Fennel
Fennugreek
Fig
Flax
Fleabane
Forsythia
Four O'clocks
Foxglove
Garlic
Geranium (Wild)
Goat's Beard
Golden Raintree (Chaintree)
Goldenrod
Gooseberry
Gourds
Grape (pollen)
Hawkweed (yellow, orange)
Hawkweed, (mouse ear)
Hazelnut
Hibiscus
Hollyhock
Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle Shrub
Horhound
Huckleberry
Hyssop
Iron Weed
Joe Pye Weed
Johnson Grass
Kudzu
Lambs Ear
Lantana
Larkspur
Lavander
Lemonbalm
Lespedeza
Lilac
Lima Bean
Locust tree
Loganberry
Loveage
Lupine
Magnolia
Mallow
Marjoram
Maple Trees
Marigold, french
Melons
Milkweed
Mimosa
Mints
Mistletoe
Mock Orange
Morning Glory
Mossy stonecrop
Motherwort
Mullein
Muscadines
Mustard
Nectarines
Nettle
Oak Trees (Pollen & honwydew)
Okra
Onion
Oregano (wild)Pansy
Parsley
Peach Trees
Pear
Peony
Pennyroyal
Penstemon
Pepper
Pepperbush
Peppermint
Perilla mint
Persimmon
Petunias
Phlox
Photina
Pigweed
Pineapple Sage
Pincushion Flower
Plantain, narrow leaf
Plucots
Plums
Pointillia
Poison Ivy
Poison Oak
Poison Sumac
Pond lily
Poplar Trees
Privet Hedge
Pumpkins
Purple Loosestrife
Pussy Toes
Queen Anne's Lace
Quince
Radish
Ragweed
Rape
Raspberry(wild & tame)
Redbud
Rose, Wild
Rosemary
Sage
Salvia
Salvinia-a water plant
Sassafras
Sedums
Service Berry
Snapdragons
Snowball Bush
Sorghum
Sourwood
Soybean
Spearmint
Spice Shrub
Squash
Sumac
St. John's Wort
Stitchwort
Strawberry (tame)
Strawberry (wild)
Sunflower
Sweet Gum
Sweet Peas
Thistles
Thyme
Tickseed
Trumpet Vine
Tulip Tree (Poplar)
Tupelo
Valerian
Verbena
Veronica
Vetch
Violets
Vitex
Walnut
Willow Trees
Wood Sorrel, Yellow
Yarrow
Zinnia

Blue, violet, and pink are the flower colors most
attractive to bees. Next are orange ones and yellows.
Some flowers, such as roses and poppies, provide pollen
but no nectar. And some plants, such as privet, red bud, and English
ivy, lure honeybees but produce strong, unpleasant-tasting honey.

BEES ON THEIR KNEES, GARDENERS TO THE RESCUE
A world without bees is a world without chocolate

UC professor says urban gardeners could save California's native bee population and avert an ecological catastrophe

Alison Rood, Special to The Chronicle

Saturday, March 3, 2007

When Professor Gordon Frankie wants to impress schoolchildren with the importance of bees, he lays out an array of foods such as berries, grapes, pears and chocolate alongside a couple of dried-out tortillas and rice cakes and asks them which foods they prefer.

"Invariably the kids go for the fruits and chocolate," he said. "Then I tell them: In a world without bees, the only choice they'd have would be the dried-out tortillas or rice cakes, since wheat and rice are self-pollinated. Even chocolate, from the cacao plant, depends on the pollination of bees. That gets their attention."

Frankie, an entomologist at UC Berkeley and a specialist in the behavior of native bees, has been the leader of a decadelong urban bee research project. By documenting bee diversity and populations in urban gardens throughout California, he's discovering which flowering plants attract native bees and determining whether urban gardens can support bees. He said the declining native bee population is comparable to global warming in terms of a potential ecological catastrophe.

"We're losing our star pollinators," he said, "so it's important to try to do something on an individual basis. A lot of what people grow now is dependent on bees and other invertebrates, but people just don't see or know that these insects are providing a lot of free services."

There are 1,600 species of native bees in California. Native bees, or wild bees, as they are sometimes called, have evolved with their native host flowers over a long period of time. Honeybees, on the other hand, were imported to America from Europe.

In other words, honeybees are an exotic species, but native bees, as the name implies, have always been here. Native bees also differ from honeybees because most are not social and make individual nests rather than rely on a colony. Although they don't produce honey, native bees pollinate about one-third of our vegetable, fruit and nut crops as well as almost all of our wildflowers.

Today, suburban developments are replacing wild habitats where native bees once thrived. Meanwhile, agricultural practices, which often include widespread pesticide use and plowing under native plants, have been just as destructive. Commercially managed exotic honeybee populations aren't faring any better. During the past few years pesticides and parasitic mites have drastically reduced their numbers.

A report in the Nov. 27, 2006, New York Times described the beginning of what bee researchers are calling "colony collapse disorder," in which honeybees are disappearing, flying off in search of pollen and nectar and not returning to their colonies. Beekeepers in 24 states have been shocked to discover their bees are gone, threatening the pollination of $14 billion worth of seeds and crops, the Times said.

The dire circumstances facing our native pollinators is the motivation behind Frankie's project. As native bees in the wild dwindled, Frankie began documenting bee diversity and frequencies in urban environments to determine whether urban gardens could support reasonable native bee populations.

"We count bees, or rather, we monitor their frequencies on flowers by doing three-minute counts on patches of flowers that measure 1.5 meters by 1.5 meters," he said. "These counts are replicated several times in order to get an average. We also do the counts over a period of years when the variations demand it. These frequencies tell us which bee species are visiting and at what level -- that is, low, medium or high. The frequencies can also be used to compare cities and to monitor through time (over years) on given plant species."

The details of the procedure can be found on the UC Berkeley Web site, which also provides a list of bee-friendly plants and offers a guide for building a garden in which native bees will flourish. Frankie notes that not all bees are interested in all flowers, so a variety of flowering plants is necessary to encourage visits.

"Instead of planting a garden with only the flowers you enjoy, look around at the flowering plants that are native to your area. Those are the plants that will attract the bees. The bees know what they need, and they'll come. If you plant it, they will come," he said.

One garden that is doing just that is the Old City Cemetery garden in Sacramento.

"The Sacramento cemetery has an incredible variety of native bee species and in large numbers," Frankie said. "It's one of our best sites in all of California."

One of Frankie's favorites is a tiny treasure -- a 14-by-14-foot space that the owner has planted with 20 species of flowering plants in groupings of eight to 10 similar plants called "patches."

Frankie emphasizes that planting the same varieties together is vital to a successful bee garden; and, since native bees are seasonal, it's also important to plant flowers that bloom successively over the spring, summer and fall.

He mentioned four experimental gardens in the Bay Area that boast a healthy number of native bees, including the pollinator lab on the Berkeley campus. The three others are at Lucas Valley School in Marin County, the Randall Museum in San Francisco and the Livermore Community Garden. The Berkeley campus garden will be showcased May 6 as one of 65 gardens in the Bring Back the Natives Garden Tour.

Other public gardens with substantial native bee populations include the arboretum at UC Santa Cruz and Descanso Gardens in Southern California.

When he's not collecting data in the field or teaching conservation and environmental problem-solving in the classroom, Frankie strives to enlighten the public about the importance of native bees through workshops, lectures and outreach programs.

He's also always looking for bees -- even when driving through residential neighborhoods. He said he doesn't hesitate to pull over if someone's front garden looks promising. "People come out of their homes, wondering, 'Who is that strange guy snooping around my flowerbeds?' "

Focusing attention on the pollinator crisis is also the goal of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, an alliance of conservation and environmental groups, private industry, and state and federal agencies. Its members hope that by educating both the public and policymakers they can stop land use practices that harm native bees.

The U.S. Senate has passed a resolution to protect pollinators and has designated June 24-30 as National Pollinator Week. That month the U.S. Postal Service will release a pollination stamp series.

How does providing a safe haven for pollinators in urban gardens relate to the larger agricultural picture if farmers themselves aren't dedicated to attracting native bees?

"Most of our research is designed for urban audiences, and we've learned that urbanites like the idea of doing some conservation in their own yards," Frankie said. "The day may come when even more people want to grow urban food, and we'll be able to tell them about their pollinator needs. Some of the bee species in urban gardens could also be important in the future for agricultural crops. In that sense, the urban garden environment may be regarded as a kind of reservoir for genetic material."

The inspiration to create a bee-friendly garden should come as easily to adults as it does to schoolchildren. All it takes is imagining a life without fruits and vegetables -- and a life without chocolate.

Resources

Gordon W. Frankie, division of insect biology, 137 Mulford Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720; (510) 642-0973; nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens.

Join a free tour of native-plant gardens in the East Bay from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 6. For more information, visit www.bringingbackthenatives.net or call Kathy Kramer at (510) 236-9558.

North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, www.nappc.org; (415) 362-1137.

E-mail comments to home@sfchronicle.com.

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This article appeared on page F - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

        Bumble bees are one of several types of bees that live in and around Texas homes. Bumble bees and their relatives, the carpenter bees, are relatively large (15-25mm-long), robust bees covered with numerous hairs. They often have black bodies covered with black and yellow hairs that create a banded pattern. Approximately 50 species of bumble bees live in North America, most of which are important pollinators of flowers and considered beneficial.
        Carpenter bees are similar in appearance to bumble bees, but lack hairs on the top surface of the abdomen.

BIOLOGY
        Bumble bees are social insects.  Nests are usually constructed underground, and consist of a series of more-or-less spherical, waxen cells some of which hold the eggs and young. Some of the cells also serve as storage recepticles for honey and pollen.  Nesting sites may be depressions in the ground, deserted mouse nests, hollow logs, cavities in rotten stumps, railroad tie retaining walls, or even piles of grass, weeds or rubbish. Bumblebee colonies are smaller than those of honey bees or yellowjackets, and usually consist of only a few hundred individuals. Colony sizes increase throughout the summer. With the advent of cool weather most bees die, with only one or a few queens surviving the winter in sheltered locations.
        Bumble bees can become pests when their nest is located near places frequented by people. Despite their generally docile nature, the activities of bumble bees can be alarming to some. Though not as likely to attack people as other social insects like yellowjackets, bumble bees can and will sting.  Unlike honey bees, which have a barbed stinger that remains in the skin, bumble bees can sting repeatedly.  Stings are most likely to occur around a nest.  Bumble bees rarely sting during pollen gathering visits to flowers.