<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0"><channel><atom:link rel="hub" href="http://tumblr.superfeedr.com/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"/><description>The Beebuds have a simple message: Keep Bees. Keep them on a roof, keep them in a yard, keep them inside your apartment,  just keep bees.

 This blog showcases what we are learning from a few chickens and a few too many bees.

We focus primarily on using the “Top-Bar” hive design. We custom built our own design after three years of trial and error, and are real excited for the future. 

This Blog is for anyone interested in beekeeping, small or large scale. It is made so that novice beekeepers can come together and share our discoveries.

We are in Chicago. We design and sell “top-Bar” hives as well as consult you on where to place them on your property. We also have a bee supplier from St. Louis. 

If anyone is interested in beekeeping, but doesn’t have the knowledge, time, or courage to get stung, then we also offer a “Foster” system. We set up a hive on your property, we take care of all the dirty work, and you reap the rewards of tasting that sweet sweet honey. 

If you have a few hours to talk, then send us an email to beebuds@gmail.com with your phone number and we would be glad to give you a call.

Lets keep them lady bees buzzin’!!</description><title>The Beebuds</title><generator>Tumblr (3.0; @beebuds)</generator><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/</link><item><title>MONSANTO TARGETING BEEKEEPERS ACROSS ILLINOIS!!!</title><description>&lt;a href="http://worldtruth.tv/whats-behind-illinois-stealing-local-heros-bee-hives/"&gt;MONSANTO TARGETING BEEKEEPERS ACROSS ILLINOIS!!!&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;p&gt;Monsanto decides to buy Illinois’ leading bee research company. I wonder what “benefits” will come of this. Please read this and share with the world!&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/43078652026</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/43078652026</guid><pubDate>Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:07:56 -0500</pubDate><category>beekeeping</category><category>monsanto</category><category>round-up</category><category>honeybees</category><category>kesha</category><category>Obama</category><category>Organic</category><category>topbar beekeeping</category><category>bicycles</category><category>constitution</category><category>illegal</category><category>research</category><category>apiary</category><category>beginning beekeeping</category></item><item><title>http://anarchyapiaries.org/hivetools/node/32</title><description>&lt;a href="http://anarchyapiaries.org/hivetools/node/32"&gt;http://anarchyapiaries.org/hivetools/node/32&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;p&gt;This guy is pretty cool. check him out&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/39931716936</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/39931716936</guid><pubDate>Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:33:16 -0500</pubDate></item><item><title>Just installed a new package recently. These bad boys are quick...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m538btQxVV1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just installed a new package recently. These bad boys are quick on that comb build. Tryin out new bar design and hive configuration. Hopefully this setup proves itself.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/24395916568</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/24395916568</guid><pubDate>Mon, 04 Jun 2012 06:11:53 -0400</pubDate></item><item><title>Soy, one of the killers of bees</title><description>&lt;a href="http://www.westonaprice.org/soy-alert/colony-collapse-disorder"&gt;Soy, one of the killers of bees&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;p&gt;everything about soy and how bad it is for not just humans but bees as well&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/18882627039</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/18882627039</guid><pubDate>Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:56:27 -0500</pubDate></item><item><title>First Harvest of the year. Wycked.</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzrpabTNCK1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;First Harvest of the year. Wycked.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/18037329583</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/18037329583</guid><pubDate>Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:58:00 -0500</pubDate><category>beebuds</category><category>honey</category><category>honeycomb</category><category>top bar hives</category><category>urban beekeeping</category><category>urban farming</category><category>Urban Eden</category><category>beekeeping</category></item><item><title>Photo</title><description>&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lznekqjOGh1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lznekqjOGh1r9x93fo2_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lznekqjOGh1r9x93fo3_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lznekqjOGh1r9x93fo4_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/17886676726</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/17886676726</guid><pubDate>Sun, 19 Feb 2012 11:17:00 -0500</pubDate><category>Urban beekeeping</category><category>top bar hives</category><category>melting wax</category><category>beeswax</category><category>chicago honeybees</category><category>rooftop beekeeping</category><category>honeycomb</category></item><item><title>
A great thing about the top Bar system, no heavy lifting. I...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyy01b75U91r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyy01b75U91r9x93fo2_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyy01b75U91r9x93fo3_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A great thing about the top Bar system, no heavy lifting. I can’t stress that enough. Also routine maintenence such as supering the langstroth’s to give more room for the bees is non existent.  The entire hive comes in one box, their are enough bars to prevent overcrowding. if you are a wild child like me though, you could fashion a thing I like to call “super-ing bars” where as the middle bars of the hive have knotches cut out of them to allow the bees to travel up into an additional top bar hive, thus more sweet sweet honey. Also, got me with a nice paper wasp hive. I gotta figure out what to do with it now. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/17120212061</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/17120212061</guid><pubDate>Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:03:10 -0500</pubDate><category>urban beekeeping</category><category>top bar hives</category><category>honey bees</category><category>comb honey</category><category>beekeeping</category><category>chicago honeybees</category><category>chicago beekeeping</category></item><item><title>SHARE IT!</title><description>&lt;a href="http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-729706-1-1.html"&gt;SHARE IT!&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;p&gt;This is serious. I hope everyone is aware of Monsanto. I know this is just a link, and their is actually no evidence that I have found, but anything that deals with Monsanto should be noted&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/17030460900</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/17030460900</guid><pubDate>Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:49:32 -0500</pubDate></item><item><title>DODECAHEDRON HIVE</title><description>&lt;a href="http://www.microecofarming.com/html/natural-beekeeping/natural-beekeeping-dodecahedron-hive.htm"&gt;DODECAHEDRON HIVE&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;p&gt;This is a different type of hive design that Chris turned me on to. It would be awesome to build this type of hive because it is more natural for bees to have a vertical nest, but know this, It is not designed to get you honey. It is designed to provide a tree like home so the bees can prosper.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Notice the shape of it resembles a tree that flows up counterclockwise. I am going off topic of the dodecahedron and discuss something I learned that I think correlates with this hive design. An old man I met at a bee class was telling me about “dowsing” wood for making beehives. I think he was a little bit off, but he explained that you can figure out the flowing energy of wood by “dowsing it”. Now don’t stop reading but if you were to take four pieces of wood to make a box aka a beehive, you should be able to determine which side of the wood attaches to another side to create a counterclockwise flow of energy. He explained it is a counterclockwise flow because “natural energy” (energy emitted from humans, animals, plants and especially trees……) flows up towards the opposing clockwise down flow of an air current. It’s insane if you think about it. But he kind of has a point when discussing how bees always build up when they are situated in a tree. Theory being, if you have correct counterclockwise flow of a hive, your bees will build up emitting correct energy, aka strong healthy Feng shui bees. I don’t know how to properly dowse wood to get the energy correct, but maybe someone else has an idea or where to look. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anyone building hives in the future should take note of this as it could be beneficial for the bees if their energy is balanced. Remember, we don’t know anything about bees when it comes to them feeling energy from the earth. This world we live in is wild, and no matter how much we understand it, can surprise us every day.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; This aint no slapping boards together to make a hive though. This is an extremely complex design that requires geometrical thought. Check it out and tell us what you think. Maybe chicago could be seeing a dodecahedron hive soon enough. &lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/16712518244</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/16712518244</guid><pubDate>Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:00:00 -0500</pubDate><category>urban beekeeping</category><category>honey bees</category><category>top bar hives</category><category>beekeeping</category><category>hives</category><category>backyard hives</category><category>backyard beekeeping</category></item><item><title>The Bike-a-Bee girl Jana.</title><description>&lt;a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janakinsman/bikeabee?ref=live"&gt;The Bike-a-Bee girl Jana.&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;p&gt;we got a new friend to the Beebuds, her name is Jana and she is the Bike-a-Bee girl. check out this idea of her’s, its gnarly. &lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/16565914349</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/16565914349</guid><pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:18:11 -0500</pubDate><category>bike-a-bee</category><category>urban beekeeping</category><category>urban farming</category><category>beekeeping</category><category>top bar hives</category></item><item><title>GoogleMaps is hooking it up with free publicity for one of the...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly7yps5UdW1r9x93fo1_400.png"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;GoogleMaps is hooking it up with free publicity for one of the Beehives. Advertising it worldwide from a satellite 24/7. If anyone is interested in putting their roof on the map, (literally) let me know. &lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/16310688160</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/16310688160</guid><pubDate>Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:37:04 -0500</pubDate><category>rooftop beekeeping</category><category>urban farming</category><category>urban beekeeping</category><category>honey bees</category><category>honey</category><category>comb honey</category><category>Top Bar</category><category>top bar hives</category><category>beekeeping</category><category>google maps</category><category>chicago honeybees</category><category>chicago beekeeping</category></item><item><title>REPORT: Naperville is trying to impose a registration tax on...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly1vhcULGH1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;REPORT: Naperville is trying to impose a registration tax on raising chickens, as well as keep the number to 6 hens per house hold. This could turn into a dominoe effect of absurd regulations for urban chicken farmers. We need to act right away!&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/16115647416</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/16115647416</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:41:35 -0500</pubDate><category>Urban chickens</category><category>naperville</category><category>naperville chickens</category><category>urban farming</category><category>raising chickens</category><category>regulations</category><category>tax</category></item><item><title>Prehistoric dinosaur tracks me thinks? Or are some chickens...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxx53bRMEH1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prehistoric dinosaur tracks me thinks? Or are some chickens playing a joke on me?&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15981632099</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15981632099</guid><pubDate>Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:21:11 -0500</pubDate><category>Urban chickens</category><category>chickens</category><category>urban farming</category><category>eggs</category><category>chicago chickens</category><category>chicago</category><category>city farming</category></item><item><title>This is a picture from a beekeeper friend of mine. William...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxquj1pN3j1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is a picture from a beekeeper friend of mine. William Gorsich who lives around St. Louis has been keeping bees for the past thirty years. He doesn’t keep bees the way we have been keeping them though. Sure he uses Langstroth hives, because yes they are more economical when it comes to pure honey production, but He can’t stand the sight of a gentle bee.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“Why would anyone put a bunch of bees that can’t defend themselves around skunks, badgers, and deer? It just don’t make any sense.” says Will.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Instead of breeding the fight out of bees so we can have a few less “owwies” on our wittle fingers, Will goes around his property and surrounding Western Illinois and Missouri and captures wild hives. He then takes those hives and puts them in a langstroth. His logic is that it saves him a ton of money from not having to buy packages, and it saves him time and resources from trying to raise his own bees. I want to point out that he still raises his own queens and bee packages for sale, but capturing swarms alleviates that strain. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;An interesting thing that William has pointed out was that of his bees, he has not had nearly as many pest problems, and a miniscule amount of hives have failed due to outside controls, such as the fabled CCD (AKA pesticides).  &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I ordered three packages from him last year and man are these babies awesome. within six weeks, one of the hives filled out ten top bars. They just wouldn’t quit. And guess what, of all the times we were messing with the hives, taking video and pictures and trying to manipulate the comb, I only got stung twice. The whole myth about an angry hive is simply untrue. We need to keep the fight in our bees, Why would anyone want to combat CCD with a hive that can’t even defend itself from robber yellowjackets, because that’s all we’re doing. Sure the bees are gentle towards us, but if you follow logic, a bee that won’t defend a human taking honey, definately won’t defend a yellowjacket or other robber bee from taking honey.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We need to be the ones that take extra precautions such as more protective gear and maybe the use of smoke. Smoke is beneficial because it distracts, but it shouldn’t be used primarily. Just take your time and enjoy the ride. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anyways this picture is of a bumblebee hive that Will captured. Yes you can capture bumblebees, if anyone is interested in capturing a bumblebee hive, let me know. I’m going to try it this spring. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;and if anyone is interested in getting bees from William, let me know as well.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15777081587</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15777081587</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:47:24 -0500</pubDate><category>Top Bar</category><category>top bar hives</category><category>beekeeping</category><category>honey bees</category><category>urban beekeeping</category><category>urban farming</category><category>natural beekeeping</category><category>comb honey</category><category>illinois queen initiative</category><category>illinois beekeepers</category></item><item><title>This video pretty much sums up what pollination does for the...</title><description>&lt;iframe width="400" height="225" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?wmode=transparent&amp;autohide=1&amp;egm=0&amp;hd=1&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;This video pretty much sums up what pollination does for the world. letting all sorts of animals and insects pollinate the flowers…..then if there is time, we get to taste that sweet sweet honey.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15559887866</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15559887866</guid><pubDate>Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:27:00 -0500</pubDate><category>pollination</category><category>beekeeping</category><category>urban beekeeping</category><category>honeybees</category><category>monarchs</category><category>bats</category><category>pollen</category></item><item><title>This is what happens when you change the nest bedding from pine...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxhu19NGFn1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is what happens when you change the nest bedding from pine chips to straw. Or at least I assume. I guess if you have a chicken start laying in one type of bedding and switch, they’ll stick with the former. I have wood chips under the garbage cans. Lesson learned&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15520139956</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15520139956</guid><pubDate>Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:58:20 -0500</pubDate></item><item><title>Had a lot of free time today so we decided to dissect a female...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcnqdUn3J1r9x93fo5_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcnqdUn3J1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcnqdUn3J1r9x93fo3_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcnqdUn3J1r9x93fo4_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcnqdUn3J1r9x93fo2_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;Had a lot of free time today so we decided to dissect a female honeybee. Put her under the microscope and had a field day. Most bees, when they die, stick their probosces (tongue) out, and we were very fortunate to get some footage. Also we took out the stinger of the bee and despite the fact that I punctured the venom sack, the stinger was perfectly intact. The stinger is an awesome defense mechanism of the bee. So tiny yet it packs so much toxin and pain for the not so gentle. Remember though, bees will only use their stinger as a last resort, it kills them, and they know that so they rarely will use it on people. &lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15368598650</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15368598650</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:54:13 -0500</pubDate><category>urban beekeeping</category><category>chicago honeybees</category><category>chicago beekeeping</category><category>Chicago honey co-op</category><category>honeybees</category><category>honey</category><category>stinger</category><category>urban farming</category></item><item><title>First eggs from my chickens. I tell you, once you try home grown...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxc7vwqKAp1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;First eggs from my chickens. I tell you, once you try home grown eggs, your world will change.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15352323155</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15352323155</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:11:00 -0500</pubDate><category>Urban chickens</category><category>chicago chickens</category><category>chickens</category><category>urban farming</category></item><item><title>Hive inspection. I learned a lot from this hive. Especially what...</title><description>&lt;iframe src="//www.tumblr.com/video/beebuds/15315062443/400" id="tumblr_video_iframe_15315062443" class="tumblr_video_iframe" width="400" height="300" style="display:block;background-color:transparent;overflow:hidden;" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hive inspection. I learned a lot from this hive. Especially what not to do when it comes to hive design. New design is going to blow the roof off of beekeeping&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15315062443</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15315062443</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:32:53 -0500</pubDate><category>Chicago honey co-op</category><category>chicago beekeepers</category><category>beekeeping</category><category>top bar hive</category><category>honey</category><category>honey bees</category><category>bees</category></item><item><title>Ultimate showdown between mammal and bird. One will win</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxara5uyKm1r9x93fo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ultimate showdown between mammal and bird. One will win&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15314226498</link><guid>http://beebuds.tumblr.com/post/15314226498</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:15:41 -0500</pubDate><category>Chickens</category><category>urban chickens</category><category>chicago chickens</category></item></channel></rss>
