Press

Bee guardian and farm owner Caren Vongontard has hosted this workshop, offered by the Soil Academy in Paonia, for the past three springs, with bee charmer Corwin Bell and his team from Back Yard Hive in Boulder. The night before class, Bell gave an introduction to his pioneering philosophy of bee guardianship.

“A bee colony’s immune system is its ability to react and adapt to its bioregion, and to pass that knowing on,” he says, his gestures as graceful and expressive as a bee’s dance.

Urban Conversion's national debut on Create TV Tuesdays &Thursdays at 11:30 & 5:30 ET.
Check your local listing at Create TVfor  The "Burbs and the Bees" Episode!

This is a video interview with Corwin Bell and other local Boulder beekeepers conducted by Gaiam.com  (one of the largest resources for green living and fitness lifestyle products).

Yesterday the honeybees descended on the blueleaf honeysuckle. Today the aroma of this amazing shrub burgeoned as the sun warmed the morning. Also known as blue velvet honeysuckle, or honey rose honeysuckle, it is amazing to behold for a few weeks a year. The rest of the time, it’s quite nice, too. But this week and next, Lonicera korolkowii is in its glory, and the bees have exactly four yards to fly from their hive to their feast. The bush is alive with bees.

The bee: a small insect with a flair for architecture, a sweet harvest and a colossal influence on our lives. It turns out we’ve been taking them a bit for granted. They might not be among the disrespected members of the insect world (ants, cockroaches, weevils, mosquitoes anyone?), but—up until recently—few of us understood the role they play in the running of our planet’s biosphere.