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Become a Beekeeper & Save Our Ecosystem!

Our Bee Friends are declining and need some champions. Honey bee populations are challenged like never before with a multitude of stressors. We need to support the honey bee and other wild bee populations with a more hospitable habitat - and more beekeepers! Angelic Organics Learning Center offers an Introduction to Beekeeping workshop (January 28th) each winter as a means of preparing new beekeepers for spring. Don’t think you have what it takes to keep a beehive? It might be more simple than you think...

Encouraging Feral Bee Colonies
Nov 5 2015 - 1:05pm
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Unseasonably high temperatures have made for lovely weather. You may also see bees, which unbeknownst to many, can stay alive year-round. Program Director, Deb Crockett, wrote this delightful & informative post about how to approach a feral bee colony, should you encounter one...

For the Love of Livestock: Urban Livestock Expo
Feb 5 2015 - 11:06pm
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Martha Boyd of Angelic Organics Learning Center and Billy Burdett of AUA

In search of a fun and informative Valentine’s Day excursion? What says "I love ewe" better than taking your date to the Urban Livestock Expo? Angelic Organics Learning Center, Advocates for Urban Agriculture (AUA), and the Chicagoland Chicken Enthusiasts will present the 3rd Annual Urban Livestock Expo on February 14, 2015, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences (CHAS) at 3857 W. 111th Street in Chicago.

The Expo offers new and experienced keepers of urban livestock the chance to learn about caring for a variety of animals, and to...

Beekeeping Basics
Oct 22 2014 - 2:04pm
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Beekeeping Basics: The Bees’ Knees Needs

Beekeeping at LotFotL (Living off the Fat of the Land) Community Farm

Arriving at LotFotL Community Farm on Tuesday, CRAFTers were greeted by some exceedingly healthy and jolly-looking pigs (as well as an impressive heap of winter squash).  However, it was a few hundred thousand head of LotFotL’s other livestock that was the focus of this beekeeping field day.

Beekeeper and farm manager April Yuds (pictured here with LotFotL owner/operator Tim Huth) started off this incredibly informative session with a tour of a Langstroth style hive and an overview of all...

The Sting of Inspiration: Local Artist Lily Picot's Interpretation of Bees
Feb 5 2014 - 12:57pm
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Local artist and studio art instructor Lily Picot has been fascinated with the insect world for as long as she can recall. As a young girl growing up in North Carolina, she would perch next honeysuckle plants, studying bumblebees and marvelling at their furry bodies.

Common Milkweed
Aug 28 2013 - 11:55am
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By Martha Boyd, Program Director, Urban Initiative, Chicago

This summer, at the Eat to Live Garden in Englewood, many Yale Elementary School students knew about the connection between common milkweed and Monarch butterflies, who lay their eggs on milkweed plants. When a Monarch caterpillar hatches, it eats milkweed leaves until it forms a chrysalis and -- if all goes well -- becomes an adult butterfly and continues on its journey.

 

I saw only one or two Monarchs this early summer when the milkweeds were starting to flower in the Eat to Live Garden -- but they attracted many other...

Urban Livestock Expo Gathers City Critter Keepers
Mar 12 2013 - 10:32am
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Urban Livestock Expo

By Martha Boyd, Program Director, Urban Initiative (Chicago)

On February 16th, over 200 visitors convened at the Garfield Park Conservatory to learn about caring for livestock in the city. 

Many people helped make the first annual Urban Livestock Expo a success – the organizers: Advocates for Urban Agriculture (AUA), Angelic Organics Learning Center, Chicago Chicken Enthusiasts, the hosts, the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, the 15 presenters, 20+ volunteers AND the standing room only crowd who came to learn from experienced practitioners about keeping chickens, ducks, bees, goats,...

A Hard Winter in the Hive
Feb 14 2013 - 11:49am
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By Deb Crockett, Senior Program Director

If you think winter has been hard on you, be glad you aren’t a honeybee!  The more that I learn about honeybees, the more amazed I am by their strategies and adaptations to make it through the winter.   Clustered in a tight group the size of a softball, the worker bees rotate from the inside to the outside to maintain the temperature of the core, protecting the queen from winter chills. 

 I am always eager, on a warm winter’s day, to check the hives to see if there is any activity.  The bees “hold...

Interview with volunteer AOLC beekeeper Heidi Petersen
Feb 24 2011 - 2:39pm
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Photo of AOLC beekeepers courtesy of John Lodder.

Heidi is one of five dedicated volunteers who make up the Learning Center’s beekeeping team, and tend our beehives weekly at our urban farmstead in Woodlawn at 6400 S. Kimbark. You can learn more about our bees and how to start your own hive at our upcoming Beekeeping workshop on March 26. Heidi was interviewed by AOLC Grants Coordinator Laura Wetter.

 

Q. When and how did you first become interested in beekeeping?

Heidi: My curiosity was piqued (like many others) when Colony Collapse Disorder made the news....

For the Bees: Biodynamic Beekeeping Workshop
Oct 11 2010 - 2:49pm
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Gunther Hauk tending bees-Biodynamic style

The Learning Center's partnership in Rogers Park, including Heartland Alliiance, Chicago Waldorf School, and others, has developed a vibrant urban beekeeping program. We are excited to announce that Gunther Hauk, biodynamic gardener and beekeeper, teacher and lecturer, will offer a workshop on Biodynamic Beekeeping at Chicago Waldorf School this Friday.

 

When:  October 15, 2-5 pm
Where:  Chicago Waldorf School Physics Lab, 1319 W Loyola Ave
Suggested Donation: $25
RSVP's: In advance to Brian Gleichauf at bgleichauf@chicagowaldorf.org

 

Mr. Hauk will speak about methods...

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