Congratulations to SturmDM, this week's featured team member!

Congratulations to SturmDM on being our featured member this week!




Doris deserves special recognition this week for her dedication to bringing awareness and appreciation to honeybees, and being such an active member of our team!
She donates 10% from all of her sales (and 20% of each bee item) to Penn State for Honeybee Research!

Doris is a very talented artist in the medium of crochet. This hat titled "Me, Queen Bee", won the Etsy Hookers (crochet hookers, that is!) Hat Challenge:




http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=10201707
Here is the blog of EtsyHookers entry in honor of Doris!
http://etsyhookers.blogspot.com/2008/09/me-queen-bee-etsyhookers-creative.html

Doris creates all kinds of different things with her crochet- blankets, stuffed animals, shawls, hats, even clothes and accessories for pets!

For the feature, we asked Doris a few questions:

1. How long have you been crafting?
I have been crafting (namely crocheting and knitting) for about 40 years on and off.

2. How did you become interested in crochet?
I learned to knit and crochet in school when I was a girl in Germany, but a lot of my more advanced skills (like reading patterns and more complicated stitches) are self taught. I prefer to crochet because it seems to be easier on my hands because I only have to manipulate one crochet hook instead of two knitting needles.

3. When did you hear about CCD?
I learned about CCD by watching "Silence of the Bees" on PBS about a year ago. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/silence-of-the-bees/introduction/38/
I was shocked, outraged and scared, especially since this has been going on for quite some time. I just didn't now. I decided to name my shop Honey Bee Crochet to raise honey bee awareness and because I donate a certain percentage of my profits towards Honey Bee Research. I learned a lot since that first time I saw that movie on TV a year ago, and I especially discovered that there are a lot of other individuals, like me, concerned about the welfare of our bees. I learned that GMOs and pesticides are partially to blame for CCD and that also we people are sufferening from the chemicals we are forced to ingest. I would encourage everyone to watch this movie: http://wideeyecinema.com/?p=105

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Thanks Doris!!

Here is a huge list of some of the resources Doris has shared with the team- BEE sure to check them out!

Here's some very easy reading, some very basic and simple honey bee facts to skim over: http://www.backyardbeekeepers.com/facts.html

Super Pesticides: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_XnvZAcM0U

A closer look at CCD from a Proffessor of Entomology at UC Georgia
http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/PressReleases/FallDwindleUpdate0107.pdf

Note: Fall Dwindle Disease was the original name for CCD

Also you can find the Who's Who in North American Beekeeping (and Canada) from Bee Culture magazine:
http://www.beeculture.com/content/whoswho/index.cfm?state=GA#state

And then there's the American Beekeeping Federation with all kinds of interesting information
http://www.abfnet.org/

and then there's UC Davis' Bee Briefs - short articles about important information
http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Mussen/beebriefs/index.cfm

Here you can subscribe to the Apiary Newsletter from the Entomology Dept. of UC Davis
http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/apiarynewslettersubscription.html

and last, but not least, let's not forget Haagen Dazs with their wonderful support of the Honey Bees. They're working together with UC Davis and Penn State and are really stepping up to the plate for our little industrious, threatened honey bees. This is a great website to start learning from and have your children participate because it's colorful, interactive, fun and totally family-friendly:
http://www.helpthehoneybees.com

They even have a learner blog for the little ones, teaching them to write to the lawmakers and get involved - way to go Haagen Dazs (I'm buying my ice cream from you!)
http://savethebees.learnerblog.com/