Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekly Reading Number 10!

Topic 1: Herbicide Law Suit

This news article covers a lawsuit filed by community water service against Syngenta, a chemicals maker. The suit is being filed because toxic chemicals had been seeping via runoff into community water sources. The lawsuit is being settled for $105 million.

I understand this settlement is considered large and monumental for corporate accountability, but considering 54 million people were affected by this, $2 a person seems like an awfully small amount of money.


Topic 2: Pesticides

This article talks about a pesticides, which even in small doses, cause bees to ignore potential food sources, which can result in entire colonies starving to death.

This is another scary example of how pesticides and other manmade chemicals can negatively affect and destroy the natural environment. This shows once again that no matter how much a chemical is tested, even the smartest scientists cannot predict what it will affect once released to the vast natural environment. Although, this article is not 100% negative, it is good to see scientists making progress in discovering what is causing the sadly rapid decline of bee populations.


Topic 3: Salmon Farming

This article is reporting on a B.C. salmon farm that recently was infected with a virus and had to cull over 500,000 salmon.

I am torn on the issue of farmed fish. On one hand, I believe that natural food is always better than processed, but with current over-fished waters, sustainably farming fish seems to have less harm on the environment. Also I find the fact they still sell infected salmon is a little disturbing. I think in general we, as humans, need to either be informed or find out ourselves a little more information about what we eat.

Reads #9

Topic 1: Starting Queen Cells

This article shows various ways of starting queen cells, including the Millar, comb, and Alley methods.


Topic 2: Clipping and Marking Bees

This article describes various methods and tools for clipping the wings of a queen bee, as well as marking queens for identification.


Topic 3: Finishing Queen Cells

This article describes methods of finishing off queen bee cells.


Topic 4: Using Queen Cells

This article explains how to properly use extra queen cells, and also describes Queen Banking.


Response: Wow, I am continually impressed with the processes that go into beekeeping. Beekeeping contains elements of breeding (the queen), woodwork (the hive), resourcefulness, gardening (flowers), husbandry, and most importantly, a connection to nature. There seems to be as many different methods as there are beekeepers. Even when just raising queens, there is  Jenter kit, walk-away split, grafting, Cloake board, artificial insemination, and a mating yard. Amazing.

Readings of the Week Number Eight

Topic 1: Artificial Swarm

This video describes the process of creating an artificial swarm and "Queen Rearing."

It constantly amazes me at how smart bees are. And not just individually smart, but able to function and interact as a team. 

Topic 2: Splitting A Hive

In this video, the host shows us how to split a hive.

I never really gave much thought to the necessity of splitting a hive, but it all makes sense, that in order to prevent swarming one would have to constantly split up a hive.

Topic 3: Making Queens

Don The FatBeeMan shows a very simple and rough way to create vertical cells to make queens.

This video was really cool and simple to follow. Its crazy how many different techniques and approaches people have to beekeeping. Its really cool there is not a set of rules to beekeeping, it is very open to interpretation and creativity.

Weekly Reading #7

Topic 1: Death by Bacon?

This article is about the danger of various red meats and the harms of having a diet heavy in red meats.

I though this article was really interesting, and very applicable to my own life,  as I really enjoy bacon and red meat. I also found it interesting how much risks decrease when you substitute with chicken. For some reason, I always though chicken was fairly unhealthy. I am definitely going to keep an eye on the meats I'm buying from now on, and try to buy nitrite-less bacon, etc.

Topic 2: Krillers

This article is about the fishing industry revolving around the fishing of the Antarctic Krill, who is being fished for its omega-3 rich oil.

Its crazy to think companies are willing to spend huge amounts of money crashing through Antarctic ice, not to mention harming the natural environment, in order to get the oil from fish smaller than shrimp. Though it is interesting to know that there is one place on earth that hasn't been completely over-fished yet.

Weekly Reading 6

Topic 1

I never realized pesticides stayed around for so long, almost like plastic.
I did not know pesticides were developed during WWII.
I did not know some pestricieds can kill enzymes. I find this very interesting, as we are just starting to learn about enzymes in Biology.

Next time we are in the garden, i will think about the pros and cons of pesticides.

Are there any naturally occuring pesticides, as opposed to synthetic?


Topic 2

I do not agree fully with this article. DDT seems like a quick fix or a short-term solution.
I think this is an issue where everyone needs to tread lightly. DDT is both helpful and dangerous.
I agree that DDT should be used, but its use needs to be monitered carefully.

Nex time we am in the garden, I will think about the organic food movement.

Where does DDT come from originally?


Topic 3

I never realised organic food brings so many differant elements to it.
Organic food is has a very large marketing side to it.
I wonder if it costs money to certify your farm as organic.

Next time I am in the supermarket, I will think more thoughtfully about the food I am eating.

Who and when first invented the concept "organic?"

Weekly Reading #5

Topic 1

I was unable to watch the video, it wouldn't play on my computer for some reason :(.


Topic 2

Wow! I never thought of looking at organic food from a business perspective.
I was always under the impression organic food was pesticide free.
Though I found this article very interesting, I also sounded very biased to me. Are they saying a McDonalds hamburger patty is on par with a $15 certified organic gourmet grain-fed free-range prime cut hamburger patty from Whole Foods?

Next time I am in the garden, I will think about the enefits of home-grown food.

Are the Canadian organic standars similar?


Topic 3

Though I believe that pasturized milk is the way to go, raw milk should still be siold, as long as it has a proper warning label.
Maybe the thing to do, is just to limit the sale of raw milk in super markets, but allow farmers to sell it.
I think the law restricting the transport over state lines is reasonable, though it sounds quite silly.

Next time we are in the garden, I will think about the repercussions of food restrictions.

Is raw goat milk legal?

Ta da! Weekly Reading Number 3

Topic 1

I did not know composting works because of bacteria.
I also did not realize how easy it is to compost your organic waste
I expected a good compost bin to have an abundance of worms, looks like this is not the case.


Next time we are in the garden, I will look for and identify some of the decomposing matter in our garden.

Are ther any environmental disadvantages to composting?




Topic 2


I have never heard of Bokashi before, I sounds like something I would like to try.
The fact there is no odor and you can do it in small bucket is very advantageous.
I never would have guessed the Bokashi mix was made of wheat bran, molasses, and liquid microbial inoculum.


Next time we are in the garden, I will keep the differant composting methods in mind, and watch for and decomposing taking place in the garden.


What is liquid microbial inoculum?


Topic 3

I never realised leaves could be beneficial to a garden, I always though it was best to just rake them up!
It almost seems the leaves become more of a paste when they leave the wire cage.
Seems like leafNext time we are in the garden, I will think about how we can incorporate leaf mold into our own garden.

Why are certain trees bad for leaf mold?
 

Topic 4
Wow! I never realized there were so many differant kinds of composting!
This has definetly given me a better appreciation of decomposing organisms.
Theres a compost hotline?!


Next time we are in the garden, I will see if I can find any worms.


How many differant kinds of worms are there?


Topic 5Thats really cool how their garden produces food for their cafeteria.
I think its really awesome how projects like this are getting alot of media attention.
I didn't know you can grow figs in BC!

Next time we are in the garden, I will think of ways we can expand our own garden.

What is persimmon?
GENERAL QUESTION: Can you combine differant types of composting in the same environment?