G R A C I A S . . . Linda Rathburn

A special G R A C I A S column going out to all our dads . . .

Father’s Day Weekend :: June 19, 2010
Girls, Math & Science Partnership (GMSP) Explores Beekeeping with Burgh Bees

On June 19, Burgh Bees hosted a group of young women and their parents as part of the Carnegie Science Center’s Girls, Math & Science Partnership’s "Tour Your Future" program, held at Joe Zgurzynski's Country Barn Farm in O'Hara Township. The program was coordinated by Athena Aardweg, Weekend Program Manager of the GMSP, an innovative Science Center program for girls age 11-17 (read more about it below). The Burgh Bees team included Joe, Jennie Wood, Mary Anne Watson, Joan Guerin, Eva Barinas, and Linda Rathburn. After gathering near the barn and donning veils and gloves, the dads and daughters trooped up the hill to Joe's hives for a first-hand look and lecture on beekeeping basics, safety, and apiary etiquette. Jennie, Joe, Athena, Joan, and Eva fielded questions and then moved the group back to the barn for a closer look at the demo hive and a lesson in bee biology with Mary Anne. Everyone had a chance to get up close and personal with the bees - under glass in the demo hive and under glass at the microscope - and to take a break with several types of seasonal honey and a long cold drink of water. Beekeeping is hot, hard work in the summertime, and we hope that our guests at Saturday's "Tour Your Future" event left with a better understanding - and appreciation - of our stewardship of the fascinating, indispensable - and endangered - Apis mellifera.

Eva Barinas: “It was so exciting to see how interested everyone was despite some hesitation about being so close to honeybees. Once we did gather to get a closer look, fear evaporated and curiosity took over.”

Joan Guerin: “I imagined myself at that age learning about beekeeping and I think it would have been a great influence on me, whether I adopted it right away or not. I was so heartened by the parents who made the effort to expose their daughters to such interesting and unusual possibilities!”

Linda Rathburn: “I couldn’t help remembering that when I was their age – about 50 years ago :-) - I wanted to be a farmer when I grew up. But we weren’t encouraged – as girls – to be farmers. Today’s young women really have no limitations, and so my advice would be: try things on. Turn in the direction of what makes you happy – of what’s interesting and mysterious – and you’ll find a good fit.”

Like to know more about the Carnegie Science Center’s Girls, Math & Science Partnership? Log on to http://www.braincake.org/ and read more about it. Here’s the story from the website:

The Girls, Math & Science Partnership's mission is to engage, educate, and embrace girls as architects of change. Working with girls age 11 - 17 and their parents, teachers, and mentors, we draw organizations, stakeholders, and communities together in an effort to ensure that girls succeed in math and science.

If this is your first BrainCake experience, enjoy! BrainCake is one of many programs we have at the Girls, Math & Science Partnership. We are proud to have a Web site that reaches girls from around the globe who are interested in changing the world with math and science!

For many of you, you've been to BrainCake many times, or experienced one of our programs or events. You view this site as a resource - a resource for yourself, your daughter, a student in your classroom, or someone you mentor. The Girls, Math & Science Partnership is exactly that - an innovative, compelling, high-quality resource for education, information, research and advocacy on gender equality in the sciences.

We're here to help girls be confident, solve problems, and think independently. We engage girls in current science, helping them understand its relevance to their life today. We create and link girls to programs that educate and prepare them to understand and use science in their everyday lives. And, we embrace girls as architects of change - envisioning, planning, organizing, shaping, and building a better world - with math and science as their tools.

We know girls can change the world. We're just a great resource to help.

1 Mary Anne warming up before the group is ready to head out to the hives

L to R: Linda's dad, Ken Mastron; Mary Anne's dad, Clarence Ungerman; Mary Anne Watson

2 The demo hive is a safe and effective teaching tool

3 The first group of dads and daughters arrives at Joe's hives up on the hill behind the barn

4 Getting ready to open the hives

5 Up close and personal with Apis mellifera

6 Protective clothing - veil, jacket, gloves, and raised socks - is essential to maintaining a respectful relationship with the bees we steward. But on a day like Saturday it is HOT stuff as well :-)

7 Jennie stops to field some questions

8 Back upstairs at the barn, Mary Anne talks bees

9 Finding the queen is much easier with the demo hive

10 Students of all ages find the "secret life of bees" a source of endless fascination

11 View through the microscope
12 Jennie explains the differences in seasonal honey varieties common to western Pennsylvania, and guests can sample the honey (and the honey cookies on offer) for themselves. Cooking with honey - as with most things bee-related - can be both challenging and rewarding.

13 Joe and Jennie address final questions from the group - and this group was "the bees' knees" when it came to questions! (DO bees sleep? Check out these two websites for an answer: http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/agnic/bee/faq.asp?qid=38 and http://www.britishbee.org.uk/faq.php - scroll down a ways.)
14 The Future Beekeepers of America - Thanks to each of the dads and daughters who participated for sharing your Saturday afternoon with us - G R A C I A S !

G R A C I A S

Photo by Benjamin D. Esham for the Wikimedia Commons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reflections_of_Earth_9.jpg


OVER THE TOP!

Check out the Kickstarter site at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meyergrelli/a-community-apiary-in-pittsburgh?pos=1

66 Backers / $3,695 PLEDGED of $3,500 goal

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYBODY!

G R A C I A S

Burgh Bees Community Apiary Ribbon Cutting: Friday, May 14, 2010

Friday afternoon, under the tent on Susquehanna Street, was the most serendipitous, genial, gathering of 'good neighbors' you would ever hope to attend.

You should have been there.

We had Irish cheese and apple slices, brownies and homemade cookies, and iced-down sham-pon-yuh (Christopher Walken sent his apologies).

We had Councilman Patrick Dowd and daughter Evyn, Councilman Bill Peduto in finest form, Christy Berger representing Mayor Ravenstahl's office, Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak (to whom we owe a new pair of shoes), and both Mike Masiuk and Sandy Feather from the Penn State Cooperative Extension. We had Susquehanna Street neighbors, Burgh Bees Co-Founders, and Burgh Bees members and friends. And we had the real 'guests of honor' - a demonstration hive buzzing with some of the newest Susquehanna Street residents: brand new members of one of the apiary's six resident colonies of honeybees, transplanted to their new home from neighborhoods all around Pittsburgh. Braddock, Mt. Washington, Shadyside, Hazelwood: four neighborhoods representing the diversity of Pittsburgh all at home today in Homewood.

(For more on the actual 'hive move' and what that entailed see the blog entry for Saturday April 9th.)

"Bees Gone Wild"

Before the Apiary Ribbon-Cutting actually got underway we had an interesting visit, from beyond the busway fence, from two Port Authority employees out investigating bus driver complaints - about yellow jackets further down the line. En route they were stopped by another driver alerting them to the fact that there were a "bunch of bees" further along the busway that might need to be checked out as well. These two gentlemen, Jack Hodge and Timothy Eubanks, really knew their bees. Mr. Eubanks: " Bees are essential. They're essential to our crops. And now they're endangered - and they have been for, oh, at least five years now." We swapped conversation for brownies, and were given good advice on how to contact Port Authority Customer Service if we wanted to discuss having Burgh Bees members weed the busway strip in lieu of having PAT spray weed killer so close to the hives. Messrs. Eubanks and Hodge: G R A C I A S !

Short & Sweet

Severe thunderstorms and flash flooding moved in and around the Pittsburgh area briefly on Friday afternoon, and our guests kept their comments and kudos short, sweet, and to the point. Since a picture truly is worth a thousand words, we will do the same.
Our Apiary Ribbon Cutting Photo Gallery:

1) Behind the scenes at the Apiary Ribbon Cutting
2) Burgh Bees Co-Founder Meredith Meyer Grelli welcomes the apiary's guests
3) Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto holds forth
4) Pittsburgh City Councilman Patrick Dowd shares a story
5) Frank, Scott, and Joan share a laugh
6) Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak greets the group
7) Burgh Bees member Terri Howard takes the stage
8) Penn State Extension Director Mike Masiuk makes a point
9) Christy Berger, Community Outreach Coordinator for Mayor Ravenstahl's office
10) Burgh Bees members Ashley Brickman and Meredith Meyer Grelli unveil the demo hive
11) Burgh Bees members Ashley Brickman and Terri Howard cut the ribbon - photo 1
12) Burgh Bees members Ashley Brickman and Terri Howard cut the ribbon - photo 2
13) Good food, good neighbors, a good cause
14) Neighbor Alfie Newberry and Penn State Extension's Sandy Feather
15) Burgh Bees' indispensable catering duo, Ashley Brickman and Kimberly Musial
16) End of the day---what goes up, comes down
17) Our true colors - - - busway fence beautification by Lucia Aguirre and Christina Neumann
- - - click on photos for a full-screen view

Noted in passing . . .

- - - Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak was glad to see that many aspects of the apiary's development remained somewhat fluid, essentially a work-in-progress: "The process is the journey." Amen. Ms. Rudiak also mentioned revitalization efforts underway in neighboring Beechview that are most definitely worth a look-see: check out the PUB blog at http://cleanupbeechview.blogspot.com/.

§ From the website: "Pretty Up Beechview is an all-volunteer, community-based organization that is dedicated to the creation and maintenance of a clean, healthy, safe and prosperous neighborhood and the promotion of those qualities therein through community action, partnership and awareness."

- - - Sandy Feather, Commercial Horticulture Educator with Penn State Cooperative Extension, noted an upcoming FREE community screening of the film Food, Inc. at our nearby Homewood Branch of the Carnegie Public Library. This MUST-SEE film will be shown on Wednesday, June 9 at 5:30 PM, and will be followed by a panel discussion on the topic, “What we can do to improve the health of our neighborhoods.” For more information check out Penn State Extension's really cool new spinoff, "yumpittsburgh." Here's the scoop: " yumpittsburgh is part of a Penn State project which strives to strengthen the local food infrastructure in Western Pa by connecting the supply and demand sides of our foodshed. This site will highlight timely info for and about farmers, food, events and resources in our community." And here's the link for more info about the showing of Food, Inc.: http://yumpittsburgh.com/?p=573.

§ From the website: " Food, Inc., a feature-length documentary by director Robert Kenner, lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing a system controlled by international corporations that prioritize profit over the health and safety of consumers. Please visit http://www.foodincmovie.com/."

- - - Roberta Jones and her dad, Robert Eberhart - Burgh Bees members and graduates of the original 2009 beekeeper's class - were on hand to welcome guests and check out the results of the latest apiary workday. Roberta noted that the native and bee-friendly plants recommended by our new good friends at Sestili Nursery were looking especially healthy.

A final note on support

An event like this one represents the culmination of hours, months, and even years of planning, hard work, give-and-take, and belief - in a vision of community cooperation on a citywide scale and in the certainty that a seed will take root if sufficiently nourished. Burgh Bees would like to take a moment today to thank everyone who has given so generously to our cause: donations in kind, of time, support, cash, advice - and seeds! We are just $277 short of our Kickstarter Fundraising goal, with just 2 weeks left to go. We will reach that goal thanks to the generosity of each individual who has wished us well. June's "G R A C I A S" column will be "In Appreciation" of our community of support - our neighbors near and far. Thank you so much.

G R A C I A S . . . by Roberta Jones

It has been a busy spring for Burgh Bees. We have successfully put together a Community Apiary video on the website http://www.kickstarter.com/ and have raised to date $2,115 of our $3,500 goal. I would like to thank Mary Grace Hensel, my friend and amateur videographer, for putting up with me all day and shooting video all over Pittsburgh. And thanks to Meredith Meyer Grelli for cutting and pasting the video to kickstarter.

Donations are also starting to come in from local organizations and Garden Clubs. Goose Creek Gardens donated many herbs to plant in the apiary's pollinator garden, and Allegheny County Garden Club donated $100, to name just two. We will publish the names of all our benefactors at the end of this first fundraising campaign. We appreciate everything you all are doing for the apiary and Burgh Bees. ~ Roberta Jones


Check out Roberta's video on kickstarter by clicking on the link below:
http://www.kickstarter.com/e/2X6we/projects/meyergrelli/a-community-apiary-in-pittsburgh

And here's the background on our fundraising project, also from the kickstarter site:

About us

Burgh Bees was established in 2008 with the simple mission of promoting bees and beekeeping in Pittsburgh. Since founding, we have trained 90 new beekeepers and established 4 demonstration apiaries throughout the city. Our long-time dream has been to establish the country's first community apiary, where city dwellers without yards can keep hives of their own and where we'll continue to teach classes. We're raising money for this apiary and an accompanying pollinator garden.

About this project

The world's pollinators, including honeybees, are dying at an alarming rate. And this not only has an effect on the flora and fauna in our environments, but also on our food supply. One of the best ways to counteract the effects of a dwindling honeybee population is to increase the number of beekeepers. In 2008, a group of backyard beekeepers established Burgh Bees to promote honey bees, beekeeping and the creative reuse of neglected urban land in Pittsburgh. Since our founding, the volunteers of Burgh Bees have:

• Established four demonstration apiaries in urban neighborhoods throughout the city in partnership with local urban farming organizations as well as the Pittsburgh Zoo;
• Trained 90 new beekeepers
• Initiated a monthly meet up for urban beekeepers to share their knowledge with each other and build a beekeeping community in the city; and
• Hosted dozens of open apiary visits and educational programs to Pittsburgh residents.

We are getting the word out about the challenges honeybees face, the benefits of honey bees in urban settings and the delights of local honey. Burgh Bees is also reclaiming abandoned urban lots and reactivating these areas with productive, positive energy and attention.

Over half of our class members live in dense urban neighborhoods, making it difficult for them to install “backyard beehives.” In response, Burgh Bees has worked with the City of Pittsburgh to secure a suitable lot for a community apiary and demonstration pollinator garden. At this site, those who have completed training will be able to place a hive of their own, under the auspices of Burgh Bees—utilizing our insurance, shared equipment, and knowledge.

We're raising funds for plants, signage, equipment, and first pollinator plants. The site will be developed using all volunteer labor from our committed community of pollinator enthusiasts!

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, April 22 . . . . . . . . . . Earth Day
Saturday, April 24 . . . . . . . Apiary Workday 2
Monday, April 26 . . . . . . . . . . . .BVABA Meeting
Tuesday, April 27 . . . . . . . . . . . Burgh Bees Beekeeper Meetup
Sunday, May 2 . . . . . . . . . . Apiary Neighborhood Honey Tasting
Sunday, May 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . National Wildflower Week
Friday, May 14 . . . . . . . . . . Apiary Ribbon Cutting with Mayor Ravenstahl - 3 PM
Saturday, June 5 . . . . . . . . . . . United Nations World Environment Day: Pittsburgh 2010 Host City
Sunday, June 13 . . . . . . . . .Apiary Warming Party
Monday, June 21 . . . . . . . . . . . .National Pollinator Week
Monday, June 28 . . . . . . . . . . . .BVABA Meeting

PHOTO PROGRESSION: JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH / APRIL: MOVING DAY









JANUARY 31 2010

FEBRUARY 28 2010

MARCH 31 2010

APRIL 9 2010: MOVING DAY