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Tour de Hive: Pollinator Appreciation Month

Tour de Hive: Pollinator Appreciation Month In-Person

Visit bee hives around downtown Boulder on a self-guided tour, including Boulder Public Library, a BeeChica's home, Growing Gardens, and CU Museum of Natural History. Meet local bee keepers and learn about efforts to support native and honey bees. View a PDF Map or scroll down for details and addresses of locations.

September has been declared Pollinator Appreciation Month to encourage our community to celebrate our pollinators and take action to protect them. Visit beeboulder.org for more events. This program is part of several Seed to Table events and services at the library that focus on sustainable living. https://boulderlibrary.org/seed-to-table/ Check the BeeChicas' instagram feed and Boulder Library Hives #beeliterate! #BeeBoulder

Generously sponsored by the Boulder Library Foundation.

 

Date:
Sunday, Sep 9 2018
Time:
12:00pm - 3:00pm
Location:
Native Plant Garden, Main Library

Audience:
  Adult     School Age     Teen  
Categories:
  Classes & Activities     STEAM     Seed to Table  

Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. (Native Bee House is next to the Creekside Playground. #BeeLiterate Hives, by the Japanese Garden)

The #BeeLiterate hives are on the roof of the Japanese Garden wall, so you can view the Langstroth hives from the ground or from inside by the bridge near Seeds Library Café. The flight path of bees from the hive is usually in an upward arc up and away from the hive. The elevated location of the hives protects people from the bees and the hives from most foragers. The hives are named Booked Bee Bread and Breakfast and #BeeLiterate. Community members built two bee hives with the BeeChicas at the Boulder Public Library in 2017 in BLDG 61 makerspace. In the spring of 2018 kids and adults built a native bee house with the BeeChicas, BLDG 61 and Colorado Sheet Metal Workers, Will Walters, Boulder Parks and Recreation.

 

Adding hives, native bee houses and the Edible Learning Garden, two pollinator gardens and a pollinator corridor create habitats and food for pollinators as well as teaching spaces for our Seed to Table programs that promote sustainable living. These programs are sponsored by the Boulder Library Foundation. Come visit the library, view our hives, nibble on a nasturtium and bring home some native seeds for your garden.
 

Growing Gardens - 1630 Hawthorn Avenue

Meet Bob Greene, the beekeeper, and Tracy Bellehumeur, the beekeeping instructor for Growing Gardens, then peek into the windows of an active top bar hive in the orchard. Besides our favorite bee, the honeybee, you will also see and learn about our thriving population of native bees amongst the millions of flowers. This site is the last remaining piece of agriculturally zoned land in the City of Boulder, and includes the largest community garden in Boulder, the Cultiva Youth Project CSA farm, the Children's Peace Garden, and buzzing pollinator garden with informative signage.

www.growinggardens.org and growinggardensboulder on Instagram

 

High Street Hives - 1560 High Street

Located in downtown Boulder, this urban apiary has Langstroth hives terraced into a southern-facing hillside with raised vegetable gardens and fruit trees. High Street Hives was started in 2007 and has since grown to include five hives. Deborah is a Master Gardener and her two passions compliment one another in the over half-acre garden. High Street Hives honey won double blue ribbons and Grand Reserve Champion in the 2018 Boulder County Fair! Deborah is also one of the BeeChicas who manage beehives on the roof of the Boulder Public Library and offer monthly library workshops to all ages. Follow along at @highstreethives and @beechicas on Instagram.

 

Forgotten Hive - Canyon Boulevard and 14th Street Forgotten Hive

This CU Environmental Design/City of Boulder partnership is located at the parking lot behind the Dushanbe Tea House. The project's goal is to determine which plant combinations provide the most value for honey bees and native bees, are commercially available, grow well in confined, concrete spaces with limited irrigation, while also adhering to the urban aesthetic. Many cities have large amounts of surface parking lots with green spaces, and this research can influence a change in parking lot planting requirements, creating a mosaic of habitat throughout cities to support farms and green spaces alike. Keep updated on our progress at www.forgottenhive.com!

 

CU Museum of Natural History, 1030 Broadway - on the CU Campus between 15th and 16th 

The pollinator garden, east of the museum, is the third in a series of pollinator projects on the CU-Boulder campus. In the summer of 2014, CU-Boulder installed the University’s first landscape designed for and dedicated to pollinators. The initiative is funded by Sustainable CU. These gardens are examples of an urban demonstration pollinator garden that provide pollinators consistent forage throughout the spring, summer, and fall seasons as well as provide the community with beautiful pedestrian entrance points to campus and serve to educate about the importance of pollinators. A sample native bee house, as well as occupied ‘bee blocks’ from the museum’s highly successful Bee’s Needs citizen science project will be available for viewing.