BEES AND POLLINATIONS

Gardening gloves are poor substitutes for the real thing (Marigolds). Bees get stuck in the elasticated wrist thingies, and can wiggle underneath inside the glove, as my fat fingers now testify.

Note to self: at twenty yards away, the shed is not too far for a quick trip to pick up the correct equipment…

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It was gorgeous in Rabun County this weekend, but very cold.  The leaves were past their peak but still really lovely and a great depiction of fall.

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Lark (my granddaughter) , my two dogs and I went to visit the bees and feed them.  They were still and silent – not a bee to be seen.

We put food in the empty rapid feeders on both hives and left them.  The temperature all weekend never went above 53.  I checked again on Saturday afternoon and not a drop had been touched.

I hope they are cold and OK instead of dead inside the hive.   This was the first time Lark has been into bee hives with me.  I took a veil for her but she wouldn’t put it on.  It was a good first visit because there were no bees present!

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Yesterday I went over to check on the Blue Heron. This incident with the vandal has left me really nervous. I pulled up to the garden parking lot and I was the only car there, so despite Roswell Road traffic in full view, I turned my car to face toward the street before getting out of it.

Then I walked up to the hives to feed them and was so nervous that I did something by accident to my phone so that all the photos were black and white – not nearly as illustrative as color, but certainly a sign that I am massively uncomfortable at the Blue Heron alone – which never used to be my truth.

The hive was still locked up and undisturbed.

The boardmans were empty and bees were flying in and out of the hive.

I reloaded the Boardmans with lovely amber colored bee tea which you cannot begin to appreciate in black and white.

The aster is still blooming, the bees are still flying in and out. I will probably move these bees home next week when the weekend cold will still the aster bloom.

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October 21, 2011
| 1:56 | Public Domain
The Presidential Early Career Scientists and Engineer Honorees share their advice to young women interested in getting involved in Science, Engineering,…

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It’s been a really great month for entomophagy (bug eating)!  Daniella Martin of Girl Meets Bug headlined a big special edition of the San Francisco Weekly that was also picked up by NPR.  I really liked this quote from the star-studded array of insect foodies that were interviewed:

“You have to scratch your head, from a logical perspective,” says Zack Lemann, chief entomologist at the Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans. “Why do we eat shrimp and crawfish but not their brethren on land?”

Exactly! I still think Dave’s name of Land Shrimp was a great re-branding of bug food.

I liked this video profile of Monica Martinez, the woman behind the Don Bugito food cart in San Francisco.  Her comparison of current attitudes about eating insects to western attitudes about sushi 10 years ago is a good one. I think she’s missed a major marketing comparison, though–eating bugs is the ULTIMATE paleo diet!

BTW, you can find the plans for the Wurm-Haus here.

Filed under: Entomology, Food, Insects Tagged: cooking, entomophagy, sustainability
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When I first heard the title of this television show, my first thought was that it would involve a dancing E. O. Wilson in tights. Sadly, no.
Or, maybe that’s a good thing–you tell me.  I think Dancing with the Stars could really use an evolutionary biologist to liven things up.

Either way, this is a neat profile of someone who’s been incredibly influential in biology for the last 50 years.   I don’t agree with everything he’s written, since I tend to think more along the lines of Lewontin in terms of my issues with sociobiology.  The  idea of a “unified theory” of animal behavior is a snipe hunt. (There is also a nice biography of Wilson in the Atlantic this week, BTW, where he has some surprisingly harsh words for Stephen J. Gould over this topic.)

However!
Wilson’s work on biodiversity, biogeography, ecology, and conservation is solid and important.  He used his unexpected fame (infamy?) to really push forward conservation. He took his bully pulpit and did something with it.

Enjoy this long interview with Dr. Wilson.  He IS the Lord of the Ants.
(I can also report that he’s charming in person, and I’m fairly sure he will find my photoshopping liberties amusing.)

Filed under: Entomology, Insects, Science Tagged: ants, conservation, eo wilson, evolution
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First I saw http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15439754

This links to http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/07/12/137798639/truck-crash-released-14-million-angry-bees-and-honey-on-highway

Which led me to http://x-files.wikia.com/wiki/Bee

I must get out more. 

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The DonorsChoose Science Blog Challenge is over–and Bug Donors were able to fund a Connecticut teacher! Yay!

Here’s what she had to say:

I cannot even begin to express my gratitude for your generosity. It is so amazing and inspiring to know that you are all committed to expanding my students’ experiences and opportunities. 

The resources that you have provided will give my students first-hand knowledge of life science. Students who have never before explored the natural world will get a chance to observe, care for, interact with, and study live animals in their habitats. My students will be exposed to the world outside of the streets, and this exposure and experience can help them reach their full potential in life. 

I know that my students can succeed, given the opportunity. YOU have helped give them this opportunity. Thank you on behalf of my students and their futures.

With gratitude,
Ms. O

If that letter doesn’t make you a little verklempt, you have a heart of stone.  Thank you so much for your generous donations! It’s not really important to win the competition, but to get kids involved with nature.  The total for ALL the science bloggers that participated was over $50,000 and will affect over 27,00o kids. WIN.

If you haven’t donated yet, there’s still time–you can visit the Insect Donors Challenge page and still give.  We are just $179 away from funding a teacher in Tulsa that wants to give her pre-K urban kids natural materials to learn and play with.  There are two other projects that will involve kids in composting and gardening.

Thanks everyone!

Filed under: Insects, Science Tagged: charity, donors choose, kids, teachers
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One of the things I do more or less full time now is give students unsolicited advice.  I talk to both graduate students and undergraduates, and they are mostly worried about the same things:

• Did I make the right choice when I decided to study ____?
• Will I get a good job?  Is *this* job (graduate program/major/whatever) the one for me?

I actually have a mathematical formula that I use to help people figure out when they are in the right major or the right job, or if a career change is a good idea.  And I’m going to give it to you, for free, because you read my blog, and are, Post hoc ergo prompter hoc ipso facto, cool.

Ready?

Here it is.

Job = Puppy

Yep. A job is like a puppy.  When you first get a job (or start a degree program), it’s wonderful and cool. Here, look –>

Doesn’t that make you smile?

Puppies are awesome. And if you have an actual puppy, you realize that puppies also have some downsides. Like…..poop.

There is no such thing as a poopless puppy.
There is also no such thing as a job with no shitty tasks.

The trick is to find a job that maximizes what I call the cute to poop ratio.

In other words, the quantity

must be greater than one.

If  the cute of your job is overwhelmed by the poop–it’s time to start looking for a new job.

I’ve made some really radical career changes–including walking away from a tenure-track faculty position.  Each time it was because the amount of poop in the job became overwhelming, and drowned out all the fun and cute elements.

Obviously, right now is not the easiest time to be starting a career, or make a career change.  Other things can modify this equation; health care benefits, for example, can turn a negative cute : poop ratio into a positive for me, at least in the short term.  If you are someone just starting out on your career path, taking a job that is not exactly what you want may also balance out, so you can get your foot in the door and start building a resume.

Just don’t stay in a job where the crap piles up around you and you are miserable longer than you have to be.
Life is short.  There has to be a balance.

Thus endeth today’s sermon. Back to bugs tomorrow!

Filed under: Science Tagged: advice, career, happiness, jobs
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For the last few years I’ve been searching for a convenient, yet effective way to winterize my hives in the cold Minnesota environment I live in. Hay bales were effective but tended to attract vermin, and presented me with a problem after winter: I could not find enough people who wanted to utilized these bales after their winter use. We tried pink insulation foam last season but they were not insulating enough it seems. This year we will try insulating the hives with Fox Blocks, insulating concrete forms. This insulation should be as effective as hay bales, yet reusable and easily stored.

Monta designed and built these structures using her skills as a sculptor. Pink insulation foam was used to close off and fill in the gaps.

We will see how this works.

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