bee & the comb

Steve's bees on the roof of...!!!!

still life

still life from alex kassian on Vimeo.

the mighty book of bees...on the way..

I've been in front of the computer screen for some time now ( perhaps a personal record? ) designing this 'mighty book of bees' which is targeted to educate +18 year olds; general knowledge of the plight of the bees, and all sorts of information...It's something like 100 pages at the moment covering most of my final project...here's a few samples to show..one month to go...

designer beehives!

check out this little thing I did on sunday. This is up in North London. Was really great to get away from the city and breath fresh air..met a badger and also some bumble bees as well..bzzz bzzz bzzzzz...ohh also check out this little video. I stuck a super mini camera on a bee, and it flew with it all the way back home..bzzzzzz

back 2 the hive from alex kassian on Vimeo.

the story of lilly bee...

I've been working on a few illustrations for a children's book about a family of bees that move into an urban environment. check!

sweet little victory for NYC

Sweet relief for untold numbers of outlaw New York City beekeepers came Tuesday in what was probably the most-anticipated vote ever taken by the board of the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:Honeybees may now be kept legallyin the five boroughs. Astory inThe New York TimesMonday reported on the impending vote, and estimated that "hundreds" of New Yorkers were already keeping bees in violation of the health code.

Previously, bees had been classified as a prohibited "wild animal" under Title IV of theHealth Code, Article 161, Section 161.01, listed among a diverse group that includes everything from polar and grizzly bears to raccoons and cat-bears to squirrels, bats, snapping turtles, condors ... and, of course, "all venomous insects, including, but not limited to, bee, hornet and wasp." While it's certain that many of these wild animals (not the bears, but surely the venomous insects, the squirrels and the raccoons) live happily in the public parks and backyards of New York City, if they are kept on purpose by residents, the health department can levy fines of between $200 and $2,000 -- and some beekeepers have received the maximum penalty.

"I am over the moon about today's ruling, as are many of my friends in the New York Beekeepers Association and other beekeeping groups in the NYC area," said Megan Paska, beekeeper ofBrooklyn Honeyand organizer of theBrooklyn Society of Urban Homesteaders, which teaches classes on a variety of skills -- among them, urban beekeeping. "It's a relief to know that we no longer have to fear being penalized for doing something we all truly believe is beneficial to our community."

See full article from DailyFinance:http://srph.it/bFakjw

designer beehives??

Bees are said to recognise their homes, and remember shapes, forms, and colours. What if we actually gave them more of a 'home' feel to their hives so they can come back to their own designed homes after a long and hard day of collecting pollen and nectar. No place like home ;)

Bee Footprint in consumer products

How much bee involvement are there in each of the things we eat? I've done a couple of experiments and found some quite shocking results. For example, Innocent Smoothie's Blackberrys Strawberries & Boysenberries flavour's ingredients are 3 pressed apples (40%) 2 bananas, 19 grapes (9%), 6 strawberries (9%), 22 crushed blackberries (9%), 17 crushed boysenberries (8%), 3/4 of squeezed orange, 9 crushed blackcurrants (4%), and a dash of lime (1.5%).

This equals more than 70% of the ingredients are pollinated by bees. How will these companies survive when the bee population is forecasted to be extinct by 2035?

I guess innocent smoothies aren't as innocent as they apprear. They've all a huge bee footprint in each product.

As passionate as they come..

I've taken a beekeeping course over the weekend with Steve J Benbow, the man behind Fortnum & Mason's rooftop beehives and their honey, as well as many others in the city of London and all around the UK. He's as passionate as they come..really enthusiastic and so knowledgeable. I was surprised he wasn't so concerned with Colony Collapse...maybe he didn't really have the time to talk about it because it was a course on beekeeping (though he did mention it a couple of times.) I really got the impression that urban beekeeping is the way forward to saving bees and re-populating them again...

sowing your seeds

If you've got seeds from my Bee Day @ the Design Cafe, you can follow these simple instructions on when to sow the seeds and when they will bloom. Good luck!

Expect to pay a lot more £££ for almonds this year..

California produces 80% of the world's almonds and the trees need 40 billion bees to pollinate the flowers. Vanishing of the Bees interviewed David Hackengerg yesterday and he says that this year will be the worst year ever in the USA when it comes to CCD. They are 200,000 hives short!

human pollination

"With the rate of annual bee loss, it may be time for us to look at the world of agriculture without the pollination of the honey bee. "

For an immediate glimpse of this dubious future, we can look to Maoxian County of Sichuan, China. It is an area that has lost it pollinators through the indiscriminate use of pesticides and the over-harvesting of its honey. The result is that hand pollination of pear and apple trees has become a common practice. In this part of China, the honey bee has been replaced by the human bee.

Consider that every spring for the last two decades, thousands of villagers have climbed through fruit trees hand-pollinating blossoms by dipping “pollination sticks”(brushes made of chicken feathers and cigarette filters) into plastic bottles of pollen and then touching them against each of the tree’s billions of blossoms. Could this method of pollination be a glimpse of our future? Humans replacing bees by hand pollinating trees and plants in an attempt to produce one third of our food staples.

design vs nature

What if objects had the power to influence nature? I don't mean by technology because technology could change nature/habitats. But if we put objects out there where bees could find them and find it useful, helpful, health-giving, and rewarding, that'd be pretty cool. Here's a few ideas I tried sketching and made some models out of paper.

The natural system - Tomatoes love the bumble bees

Recently I watched a documentary where Jimmy Doherty (Britain's famous TV presenting pig farmer) explores the global logistics that bring fresh food from around the world to a shop near you, and uncovers the science that keeps food fresh for weeks. In this, they introduce Britain's biggest tomato grower- and how he uses bees to pollinate the flowers and uses no sprays for pest control. Really amazing stuff- check it out! I think it could be an options to keep the bees warm during the winter and away from the bad pesticides!

bee love

Untitled from alex kassian on Vimeo.

welcome to the buzz!

This blog will be dedicated to the honeybees who create honey, and pollinate approximately one third of the fruits and vegetables we eat. My final design project focuses around the issue of Colony Collapse Disorder and how we as designers can help enhance the lives of bees. Although scientists haven't entirely narrowed down something to blame the causes of CCD, it seems clear that the bee hives near certain monocultures in rural agricultural areas (especially in the US) are being affected. On the other hand, urban beehives are thriving in busy cities because of the wild flowers that grow in the area, where the bees can collect organic goodness.

This blog will also be a platform for discussions and even collaborative works. Even though I'm not a scientist, I believe that if we do small things really well, then it'll definitely make an impact for the bees in one way or another.

Enjoy!