From the UC Blogosphere...

Flight of the Honey Bee

Friday, Feb. 11 seemed like a glorious spring day. Almond trees at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at...

Bee in Flight

HONEY BEE heads for almond blossoms at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Newspaper turns to UCCE for commentary on almond bloom

Even though the earliest almonds are already starting to bloom, this week's rain storms don't spell ruin for California farmers, according to UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Joe Connell.

Connell shared his thoughts about bloom with reporter Heather Hacking of the Chico Enterprise Record. He said he has 80 years of bloom data in his office, and the date of first bloom is anywhere from the last week in January to the first week of March.

Because bees were in almond orchards last week, before the rain, the pollen gathered will help strengthen hives and prepare the bees for the work of the main almond bloom, the farm advisor said.

If the storms bring hail, however, it can disastrous for growers. Hail was reported in some areas Wednesday, which is not good, Connell told the reporter. The hail can damage open flowers and knock down nutlets; cold temperatures can cause frost damage.

Almond bloom is getting underway in California.

Bee-utiful Find

It was a bee-utiful find: A how-to book published in 1890 on rearing honey bees. We found the book, ABC of Bee Culture: A...

Inside the Hive

QUEEN BEE and her colony. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Wax Moth Larvae

WAX MOTH LARVAE were mentioned in A. I. Root's "ABC of Bee Culture," published in 1890, but not the small hive beetle (center left). Its presence wasn't confirmed in the United States until 1998. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Sonoma County opens vacant land to ag production

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to open county land — including parts of parks, open space parcels and vacant lots in residential areas — to community gardeners and small commercial farmers, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

The initiative is designed to make land available for agricultural production in an area where high land values make it nearly impossible to farm.

UC Cooperative Extension in Sonoma County will conduct an inventory to identify suitable land for the project. The researchers will consider property owned by the county water agency and land controlled by the general services department, the article said. The study and plans for application and training will be be completed in June.

“We've got this land. How do we go about giving people access to it?” the article quoted Stephanie Larson, director of UCCE in Sonoma County.

The program was praised by health advocates — who believe more local farming and gardening could ease the county's obesity rate — and small-scale farmers.

“There are a lot of young farmers who want to get into business,” Santa Rosa small farmer Wayne James told reporter Brett Wilkison. “(The county) should really be doing more of this.”

Small farms and gardens to spring up in Sonoma County.

Ladybugs in February

The overwintering ladybugs tucked in the leaves of our tangerine tree are gone.Sunny temperatures hit 75 degrees, and off...

Ladybug in February

OVERWINTERING ladybug perches on top of a tangerine tree leaf as temperatures hit 75 degrees. This is an introduced species, Coccinella septempunctata, as identified by Natalia Vandenberg, a USDA employee with the Systematic Entomology Lab, Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

'Crawl Space'

LADYBUG (Coccinella septempunctata) crawls down a tangerine leaf on a sunny day in February. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Back Up

LADYBUG (Coccinella septempunctata) crawls back up a leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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