Davis Bee Collective

[C. D. Coulon]

Hi Bee Collective!

In the last few years some of us urban beekeeping enthusiasts have been hard at work in Davis, experimenting with a "city-wide swarm capture network" as a non-profit project. 

At this point, I am confident that both the need for such a swarm management strategy exists, and that the system in place now is mature enough to expand and form a permanent part of our urban sustainability/resiliency/permacultural infrastructure.

For context, year before last i counted ~60 swarm incidents in Davis. We caught almost half of those in swarm capture hives (you may have seen our colorful buckets hanging in trees). From there they go to our backyard keepers.

That's a lot of prevention of swarms moving into chimneys and walls, or landing on stop signs or fast food restaurants and being exterminated. 

However, half is not enough! 

With a larger network of swarm capture hives we can catch most of them, and thereby provide both a civic service as well as a source of bees to local keepers.

That's what we intend to build in Davis in the next few years: a next generation swarm capture and urban beekeeper network. And I think it makes most sense to do it under the Davis Bee Collective banner.

So that's the purpose of this email: 

to reach out to anyone still living in the region with interest in reviving the Davis Bee Collective as a more active group with a dedicated role in serving the city and it's keepers by maintaining healthy bees and good beekeeping practice in the city.

We might also meet more often for fun and bee talk.

You can expect me to email this group more often. As well, any members who are interested in organizing and posting an active role, please reply to this email or call me: 510 400 8443

Tom Cross tcr...@scprent.com is also a good contact and has agreed to help build the community.

Likely as we get going there will be a Slack channel for more directly involved folks.

Thanks for reading and happy beekeeping this year!

Your friend,

Christian + The Bees + All the Pollinators