The Making of a Bee Documentary
Once out, those almond blossoms might look all picturesque and peaceful, but for those who are living off the almonds the predominant feeling is, in the words of one of our beekeepers, “breathless anxiety”. Just before bloom, in late January, it is the first time that the beekeepers see their hives after winter; and after [...]
This is what we saw yesterday. Some of it, anyway. An enclosure for propagation of solitary bees, x-rays of nesting tubes for mason bees, a cooling chamber for artificial winter at 4°C. And a male mason bee (easily identified by its blond moustache) on the lookout: Today we had to stop filming. Seems that we [...]
And bloom there is. At last. The bees are happy. And so are we.
Beekeepers really don’t have it easy these days… But then again: with half the US bee population, some 1.3 million hives, in the Central Valley, this may not sound so absurd anymore. Most bees are placed in the orchards by now, but the weather is cold and windy and bloom is late in Kern County. [...]
Some might have wondered about the name “Bee” for a newspaper in the last post. We did, too. And found this: The Modesto Bee is actually the sister-newspaper of the Sacramento Bee. And they write in their Guide to the Bee: Why is it called ‘The Bee’? (Exerpted from The Sacramento Bee’s Ombudsman column on [...]
We’ve been in Modesto today, in the not yet blooming almond orchards, to place bees. Bright sunshine, but cold. They seem to like their bees down there. And although the bees don’t necessarily make it into the headlines these days, the alert reader can find a lot of information if she knows where to look. [...]
Last Friday, I am peacefully driving into town with one of our beekeepers, when, suddenly, the car stops. “YOU SEE THAT?!!” I don’t. His arm shoots out and points at something on my side of the street. I see an old warehouse, some streetsigns, a little thicket of bare branches. “Popcorn!” He pulls out his [...]
The bees are arriving in California from all over the country. These have spent the winter in the potato cellars of Idaho (which may sound a bit weird, but the cellars are actually a pretty good place for a bee in winter: nicely cool and dry and dark). This is the bees’ first day out [...]
I was out scouting a location at Sacramento International Airport today (for once for a “bee-free” shot) and look what I found: California is really getting ready for pollination. You run into hives all over the place. Still, there is fear among the almond growers that there won’t be enough bees this year. But it’s [...]
I am still on the road for research and preparations and can’t write much. But I don’t want to keep this one from you. This is where I had coffee today: They are among us.
