After retirement from a long career of Public Service, in Dade County, Florida, Grace moved to North Florida where she farms a small citrus grove, where she grows tangerines and red navel oranges. She also maintains a small garden of Native plants, Florida friendly plants and also Wild Flowers. Through the extension office where she volunteers as a Master Gardener, she met Santiago Wallace of Wallace Family Apiary, now in addition to her chickens and wild turkeys, she also host some of Wallace’s Apiary Bees. In order to maintain a safe environment the use of chemicals is very minimum in her grove. In the garden adjacent to her home, she has no turf, thus saving precious water and totally eliminating the need for chemicals and/or fertilizers. She believes that with some planning, it’s possible to maintain an attractive landscape without the use of harmful chemicals and fertilizers.

Join Us on June 17th for our podcast with Grace Mathews.

So mark your calendar (or sign up for the reminder at the link below) and plan on joining us for the conversation and share your experiences and/or ask your questions. Hope to see you.

What: WpN Beekeeping Podcast – Native Wildflowers and Bee Friendly Plants Podcast with Grace Mathews
When: Thursday, June 17, 2010 8PM EST
Where: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/16456]http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/16456

The schedule of future podcasts and recordings of previous podcasts can be found here. You can also sign up to get an email reminder the day of the podcast.

Directions on joining and participating in the podcast can be found here.

Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

Janet Brisson and her husband Mike have been a self-sufficient family and organic farmers for over 30 years. In 1995 they were forced to become hobbyist beekeepers due to lack of pollination as bees were loosing their fight against the insidious Varroa mites. Horrified to discover that even the most organic-minded beekeepers were driven to use some type of chemical to save their bees, the Brisson’ researched and started building and using screened bottom boards along with intensive drone brood management to reduce their chemical use. After 10 years and various adaptations of SBB’s, they re-discovered using powdered sugar as an effective way of detaching Varroa mites and have been chemical free since the beginning of 2005. One final modification of their screened bottom board to make using powdered sugar easy, the Brisson’ developed their product, the Country Rubes Combo Screened Bottom Board, that has become nationally available to beekeepers. Janet’s program “Healthy Bees & Environmentally Friendly Varroa Control” discusses how to monitor and manage your hives, bees and varroa mites using screened bottom boards, powdered sugar, and drone brood manipulations has been given at Conferences and clubs throughout the United States

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Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

David and Sheri began keeping bees in 1994 in Ohio and the hobby went wild in 2004, 10 years later. For the last 5 years, they have ventured into every aspect of beekeeping. First, it was honey, then beekeeping equipment, then packages and queens, then classes and the list keeps growing. They have 6 children and 4 are involved in their bee business.

They maintain around 100 colonies a year and produce and sell hundreds of queens each year. They also sell 500 packages a year along with nucs. David is currently serving as president of our 70 member bee club, Central Eastern Illinois Beekeepers Assoc., and Central Director of the Illinois State Beekeeper’s Assoc. Presently they are the only large scale queen producer in Illinois. David is also serving as a lead member in the Illinois Queen Initiative, an effort underwritten by a SARE grant to produce a better queen for beekeepers.

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Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

Amber Rose has been a healer all her life. After graduating form the Universities of Chicago and Iowa with special honors, she went on to study at the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Columbia, Maryland. Amber is a licensed acupuncturist in three states and the District of Columbia. Amber also became an ordained interfaith minister through the New Seminary in New York City and finally got her Ph.D. in Theology at Columbia State University in Louisiana.

After stumbling on the amazing healing power of honeybees, Amber opened her home in Bethesda, Maryland and created a free clinic to sting people with bees. Inspired by the remarkable recovery of her patients, Amber wrote the award winning book, BEE IN BALANCE. Considered by many to be “The Bible” on Bee-Acupuncture, this book is bound to be a classic.

Amber Rose is a pioneer in a whole new field of medicine. Her approach to healing is unlike anything you have ever seen before. Amber is convinced that the art of Classical Acupuncture and Bee-Acupuncture is sacred medicine. She continues to travel all over the world giving lectures and demonstrations to those in need of healing. Amber was also on the Board of Directors of the American Apitherapy Society.

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Elements Questionnaire referenced in the podcast -> Here

Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

Monica Warner is the co-owner of The Carolina Bee Company. She and her husband, Todd have been keeping bees since May of 2004. They are a small beekeeping operation located in Franklin County, North Carolina (about 20 miles north of Raleigh).

This little enterprise was started with just two hives of honey bees. Over these handful of years, the Warner’s slowly expanded the number of hives as well as their experience.

Today, The Carolina Bee Company still remains a small company that produces high quality, chemicalfree, raw honey; and offers limited pollination services to the surrounding gardening and farming communities. Now, they have also expanded their small company to include the production of fabulous all natural, slow-cured, hand-crafted and handmade soaps, lip balms, and body butters.

All of their products are made from scratch with the very best all-natural ingredients to include, of course, the blessings of The Carolina Bee Company honey bees: honey and beeswax. Their products have been a resounding success.

Monica entered the soaps, lip balms and body butters into the 2008 and 2009 NC State Fairs, and won 1st and 2nd place ribbons for them respectively. Feedback on the products has been so positive, that they are expanding the product line further by selling in a couple local (Raleigh area) businesses, in addition to selling them on their website, www.carolinabees.com.

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Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

I’m always open for suggested topics for future podcasts and if you know someone that would be a great guest, please let me know.