Berkeley Ca- top bar hive lecture by Les Crowder, March 2, 7 pm

[girl Mark]

Top bar hive beekeeper Les Crowder is doing a slideshow/talk about top bar hive beekeeping , on March 2, from 7-9 pm, at the Ecology Center
Bookstore in Berkeley Ca .

Les has been teaching top bar hive and sustainable beekeeping workshops in the Southwest for many years and is highly respected as a top bar hive expert.

The Ecology Center is located at 2530 San Pablo Ave (near Dwight)
Berkeley, CA 94702, and is open from Tuesday - Saturday, 11:00 a.m. -
6:00 p.m. (510) 548-3402 info@ecologycenter.org

I don't have further info at the moment - usually the Ecology Center's evening lectures are free- check the March section of the www.ecologycenter.org (http://www.ecologycenter.org) website calendar in a few days for details
(there's nothing about this event at the calendar yet as they just
scheduled it last week)

[girl Mark]

This is now at the Ecology Center site, and it is indeed free:

http://www.ecologycenter.org/calendar/event.php?eventID=19589

Thursday, March 2, 2006
Organic Beekkeeping Talk with Les Crowder

Join us for a special talk and slideshow by master organic beekkeeper
Les Crowder. Les Crowder has taught beekeeping since 1988. Known for his
calm and peaceful relationship with bees, Les maintains over 100 top bar
hives without chemicals, contraptions or expense. Les and his wife Beth
make a livelihood working with honey, beeswax, propolis, bee pollen and
royal jelly. Les is in town briefly from New Mexico for almond
pollination season - don't miss out on this presentation.


Thursday, March 2, 2006
Time: 7pm - 9pm.
Location: Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA.
Cost: Free.
Info: 510-548-2220 x233

[Beesplease]

Unfortunately, Berkeley is a little far for me to travel for a 2 hour talk, but maybe someone who does attend could give us a run down after. Does Les use his TBH's in the almond groves? It was my understanding that him and other local beekeepers in NM had set up sort of a self imposed quarantine to keep out varroa and other pests in their area. Doing almond pollination in CA would seem to expose his bees to all that and more. Just wondering.

[PaulR]

Gm,

Thanks for the update. Are you going to be there?
If Les has any handouts grab me a copy. I couldn't find a reasonable ticket, or I'd be there.

[girl Mark]

Sadly, I"ll be in muddy Michigan that day, getting ready to teach something unrelated to beekeeping, so I"ll be missing this also.

Les teaches frequently at EcoVersity in Santa Fe NM- and you might be able to get to one of his other classes in New Mexico. He's not much of an emailer but Ecoversity is here , with his certification course prominently listed:
http://www.ecoversity.org/

I believe that yes, he's using TBH's for pollination. I haven't heard about a New Mexico self-imposed quarantine, but even if they were doing one, it's way too late for keeping Varroa out. He and his other followers/students do other methods, mostly focusing on genetics and natural comb in TBH's, if I understand correctly.

Mark

[ February 15, 2006, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: girl Mark ]

[girl Mark]

in fact, here's the direct link to his EcoVersity class (it's the shopping cart for their class registration section, hence the weird URL), meeting every weekend from March to September. This sounds like such a fantastic opportunity- I can't think of any formal beekeeping class that would involve that many contact hours. EcoVersity is also a very inspirational place for other related things.

http://secure1.netbilling.com/cs/store.cgi?store_id=245&merchant_id=Eco2639&prod_cat=2779

[ February 15, 2006, 06:02 PM: Message edited by: girl Mark ]

[PaulR]

I saw the courses. Very nice. All hail the TBH!!!