What Grows On in Rhode Island News

Beekeeping in Rhode Island ~ March 1, 2011

Join us at Portsmouth Free Public Library on Tuesday, March 1 (originally Feb 8) at 6:30 PM as Sanne Kure-Jensen, NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional, URI Master Gardener, and beekeeper presents an overview on beekeeping in RI. Learn how to build equipment (woodenware), install bees, check on the colony and harvest honey. This session will also briefly review candles and other products like salves and cosmetics made with beeswax, honey or propolis. Sanne will stress organics and their importance in the home garden and lawn. Attendees will learn where to get more information including the RI Beekeepers Association spring Bee School: a 5-week course run each spring.

This program is free and open to the public.  Seating is limited so please stop by or call the Library at 683-9457 to register.

Portsmouth Free Public Library, 2658 E Main Rd, Portsmouth, RI 02871

Website:
Phone: 401-683-9457
Email: [email protected]
Price: Free
For directions, see http://portsmouth.patch.com/events/bees-and-beekeeping.

Sign Up for Bee Schools ~ February & March 2011

Why do people keep bees?

It's a good hobby for people who love nature and enjoy watching and learning about bees and the flowers they pollinate and gather nectar from. It insures that you will always have good pollination in your gardens. Some people keep bees because they love honey! Some people even keep bees because they have arthritis and wish to get stung to alleviate arthritic symptoms.

The Rhode Island Beekeepers Association teaches beginner beekeeping classes every year in February and March.

Topics covered include:

• Getting started
• The honeybee life cycle
• Choosing an apiary
• Buying bees and equipment
• Installing package bees
• Catching Swarms
• Bee diseases and pests
• Spring Inspections
• Getting ready for the honeyflow
• Wintering bees

There will be a variety of beekeeping equipment displayed and demonstrated each week. Beekeeping catalogs and other handouts will be distributed and several beekeeping videos will be shown.

2011 Bee School Schedule - 3 Courses

Save the Bay Seal Watch Tours & Exploration Center Hours ~ January 2011

What Grows On in Rhode Island lists all kinds of events, including Save the Bay's Seal Watch Cruises and the hours of their Exploration Center and Aquarium in Newport. January's theme is Planet Plankton. Check out the Calendar today!

Live Chicken Hens are Legal in Providence! ~ September 17, 2010

The second vote is in, and the Chicken Ordinance has officially passed! (11-1, with Councilman DeLuca voting against, Councilwoman DiRuzzo abstaining, and Councilman Luna and Councilman Tejada absent).  In line with the language of the ordinance, residents of Providence are now legally allowed to raise hens in the city!

What's next? 

As part of the Plant Providence Workshops and Events calendar, the Southside Community Land Trust will be hosting a workshop on Raising Urban Chickens on Saturday, November 13, 1 pm, at City Farm.  (The complete calendar of workshops is available at www.plantprovidence.org).  With generous support from the Albin Family Foundation, SCLT will also be offering a Raising Urban Chickens workshop this winter at the Wintertime Farmer's Market, as well as a hands-on workshop on How to Build an Inexpensive Chicken Coop in the spring of 2011.  These workshops will be included on the Plant Providence 2011 Calendar, so stay tuned for more information.

An enormous thanks to everyone for their hard work and support in continuing to strengthen Providence's local food system by giving residents increased opportunity to raise their own food.  What a wonderful example of grassroots democracy!  A special thank you to Councilman Cliff Wood, who sponsored this ordinance and helped enormously with its passage.

cluck, cluck,
Leo Pollock, Southside Community Land Trust

Fish ladders coming to the Ten Mile River

Fish ladders coming to the Ten Mile River. by George Morse in EastBayRI.com, September 16, 2010.

EAST PROVIDENCE/SEEKONK - Over the last several years members of the Ten Mile River Watershed Council and Save the Bay have been on a mission to install fish ladders at a number of local dams. For more than the last two centuries, the dams have blocked anadromous river herring (blueback herring and alewives) and American shad from their historic spawning grounds in the Ten Mile River watershed....

Providence Chicken Ordinance Vote ~ September 16, 2010

From Southside Community Land Trust

The Chicken Ordinance has passed out of the Ordinance Committee, and will be voted on by the full City Council twice: on THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 2nd and THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16th at 5:30 in the Council Chambers. We need a majority vote at both City Council meetings to pass the ordinance and legalize chicken keeping in the city!

To make this happen, we need you to call your city council representative before these council meetings to make sure they vote in favor of city chickens! We also need you to attend the city council meetings, wear a chicken sticker, and let the council know: WE WANT URBAN CHICKENS!

How, you ask?

Audubon's Raptor Weekend in Bristol, RI ~ September 11 & 12, 2010

Swoop into Bristol this weekend for the largest celebration of raptors in New England! Amazing birds of prey, the hunters of the avian world, will be featured this Saturday and Sunday, September 11 and 12, 2010, at Audubon's annual Raptor Weekend. Come see Snowy Owls, Peregrine Falcons, Great Horned Owls and more. Learn how Audubon is helping save these wonderful birds and how you can help.

Activities and presentations for all ages. Hope to see you there!

CLICK HERE FOR THE WEEKEND SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS

Don't wait in line...get your advance tickets here!

 ~ From Audubon Society of RI

Audubon Events ~ September 2010 - January 2011

All the Audubon events for September through January are now in What Grows On in RI. I also maintain Audubon's online calendar so you can see them there as well.

Many of these events require registration and they fill up fast, so check either What Grows On in RI Calendar or Audubon's calendar for dozens of children & family events, walks, classes such as Taking the Mystery out of Mushrooming, and special events such as Raptor Preview Photo Session (opportunity to photograph Audubon's raptors). Sign up soon!

There are several popular tours. To find them quickly in the Calendar, limit to the Tours subcalendar and type in the keyword search box Audubon). This will list the Block Island Birding Weekend, the Fall Photo Tour, the Winter Waterfowl & Seabird Caravan, Winter Big Day, and Winter Photography Exploration. Also note there are classes, walks in refuges that are usually not open to the public, and much more! Lots of interesting things to do ~ Thank you, Audubon!

[P.S. Peregrine Falcon reminds us that Raptor Weekend is September 11 & 12 at the Audubon Environmental Education Center in Bristol.]

Washington County Fair ~ August 11-15, 2010

It's time for the 44th Annual Washington County Fair, the largest agricultural event in Rhode Island located on the fairgrounds on Rt 112 in Richmond, RI!

The website has details of the activities that range from country music (including grand ladies of the Grand Old Opry) and amusements that include a 4-story-tall roller coaster (billed as the largest traveling coaster on the East Coast); Rooster crowing contest; various tractor pulls; swine, goat, and draft horse shows; dairy clipping contest; woodsmen contest; horseshoe pitching contest; lawnmower races; watermelon seed spitting contest; tug-o-war; and much more.

The photo in this post is from the Washington County Fair's slideshow for August 11. If you have never been to the Fair, the photos on the website will give you a good idea of what you'll see. Many of the farmers and young future farmers supply and will supply our local food ~ if you like the farmers' markets, this is another side of the story.  There are all sorts of vegetable and flower competitions, something to keep in mind for future years as more of us grow our own vegetables and expand our flower gardens.... I could go on and on, but go to the Fair if you can!

Blue Crabs in Narragansett Bay

Providential Gardener aggregates news from many Rhode Island blogs in its Feeds website. You can view the news by categories, and you can see the whole list of sources (which is arranged by most recent blog postings). Most of the sources are primarily environmental, but there are several general RI news feeds that occasionally have environmental news. RSS feeds are a great way to follow the news. You get a quick overview of a wide range of stories, and you can click on the titles to get the details when you want to know more. Subscribe to some of the categories in a feed reader or in your email, or follow ProvGardener on Twitter.

One of the sources is the Narragansett Baykeeper John Torgans' blog. Save the Bay posted a video this week about blue crabs in Narragansett Bay ~ This is quite a great year for these warm-water loving creatures, and Rhode Islanders have been finding lots of the big male crabs that are perfect for the dinner table (females must be put back in the water so there'll be more crabs next year).