Hello Backers and Friends!

This month has been SO busy, and we still have about 2 more weeks of work until the hives are all up and buzzing! The bees have all been ordered, and the hives have all been built. Four hives will start as "nucs" which I am getting from Majenica Creek Honey Farm in Huntington, Indiana. Four will start from packages of bees (yes, literal screened boxes full of bees) from Apple Blossom Honey Farm in Star City, IN, and two others will be coming from southern IL.

So how did we get here?! With SO much help from our generous friends. On Monday the 19th a giant skid of hive equipment showed up at my door. I reeeally wished I had a warehouse space, let me tell ya.

We threw a Hive Building Party that night and it lasted for four evenings. 23 people showed up, a few for multiple nights! HUGE thanks to Laura, Adrianne, Justin, Elaine, Christina, Ned, Andrea, Melissa, Erin, Levi, Todd, Melissa, Rosa, Luly, Tom, Kayla, Justin, "Michael", Dreiske, Brandon, and our littlest helper, Graeme! Special thanks to Ned for coming 3 nights in a row, Levi and Erin for bringing the nail gun, and to Christina and Rosa for working 2 nights each and for filming the process. Together we assembled 65 hive boxes and 700 frames!

Yesterday Max and Anna came over and we painted the 65 hive boxes in daffodil yellow, light chartreuse, sky blue, white, and pink! We'll mix and match them to create really nice looking beehives. These colors will look beautiful in the garden and help the bees identify their home. Today I assembled my Bikes at Work trailer, it looks great!

So as you can see, we've been busy. Over the next few days we'll begin placing the empty hives at their new homes, and then when the bees come in to Chicago from the Indiana farms we'll install them. I must admit that my timing was off now that I've missed the March deadline for getting some of the rewards out to you amazing people. I thought March would be a chill, bee-free month where I could get some serious illustration work done. GUESS NOT! Now I am shooting for end of April. I hope you all understand!

With this crazy early spring we're having in Chicago, the bees that I do have have been going nuts! My friend Will and I went down to visit the hive at Eden place and they're already acting like it's June. Will caught some excellent photos through his bee veil. Check out this sneak peek of the photos he took below, I'm blown away. See more of his work at www.eightonesevenphotography.com

Hello Backers!

Bike·a·Bee would like to ask for your help assembling hive bodies! We have about 9 hives worth of equipment to put together using hammers and glue, and this is certainly something I could do on my own but... I thought this might be more fun :)

Check out the event on Facebook, it has a place to RSVP as well as the address, details, and other goodies:

http://www.facebook.com/events/129801200482082/

I am thinking I'm going to make some special 1" buttons for everyone who shows up. You'll get two if you ride your bike!

Thanks for your consideration, and don't forget your hammer!

----

(What the Facebook Event says, below)

We're going to be assembling ALLLL the hive equipment for Bike·a·Bee! Why? Because it was much cheaper to get everything shipped flat and unpainted.

I could assemble everything on my own, but that would involve a lot of pain and possible loneliness. So instead I thought I would invite everyone over to help! We'll be doing this for 4 days, in the evenings from 5pm-10pm. Come whenever!

In exchange for helping assemble hives, you'll get:

• Snacks and Beer!
• Honey tasting from our hives down at Eden Place!
• A special Bike·a·Bee pin!
• Unlimited bee questions answered!
• And the chance to mingle with other backers and supporters.

Plus we have a TV with Netflix where we can turn on hokey movies or whatever! It will be a fun hang-out kind of vibe.

IMPORTANT! If you have a hammer, bring it! I will try to get some extras, too. Otherwise you can use rocks.

Hello Backers and Friends!

Bike·a·Bee has been quite busy, as you can imagine! What have we been up to, you may ask... well, let me tell you!

1. We have all of the funds set up in a bank account and have begun purchasing things! All of the hive equipment was ordered from Mann Lake ltd up in Minnesota, except for 2 top-bar hives ordered locally from Beebuds. We've ordered our packages of bees, which will be available in April. And lastly, we ordered our bike trailer from Bikes At Work!

2. Last weekend I took a trip up to Minneapolis, Minnesota to take the Beekeeping for Northern Climates class taught by the University of Minnesota Bee Lab. I had a great time and learned all sorts of new ideas from teachers Marla Spivak and Gary Reuter. I stayed with my new bee friends Kristy Allen and Erin Rupp of Community Bees on Bikes. Kristy and I attended the class together, and she even let me tag along for her weekly honey delivery!

3. We also checked in on our two hives down at Eden Place. One did not make it through the winter, so we'll be splitting the healthy hive in a month or so and getting a new queen. The mild winter has the gals itching to get flying, and some of the trees around the city are even in bloom! Soon enough spring will be here!

Some Upcoming Things!

Hive Assembly! Bike·a·Bee will be needing help assembling beehives in about a week (March 18th-24th). Grab a hammer and stay tuned!

Webisodes! Our rad team of videographers are ramping up to begin filming webisodes. I can't tell you how excited I am to see what Christina and Rosa create! Want to help?! If you're a musician or in a band and would like to have your music featured in a webisode, we're looking for talent... Email us here!

[Photo by The Beez Kneez Bicycle Delivered Honey]

Hello Backers!

It's been a busy couple of weeks for Bike·a·Bee. Even though we're funded we are still getting pledges daily, and for that I am so grateful! Every bit over the goal will help sustain our hives and expand our educational reach through out Chicago!

A few new exciting things:

1. We're making friends! Two awesome women from Minneapolis contacted me with their project Community Bees on Bikes. It looks like we hit on the same idea at the same time! I was so excited to get in touch with them… I want to see bicycle-powered beekeeping and bee education in every city in the WORLD. Please check out Kristy and Erin's project, like them on Facebook and show them your support. Also, keep an eye out for possible future team-ups and visits to eachother's apiaries!

We also met the Beebuds, a fantastic crew of scrappy and youthful beekeepers up on the far northwest side of Chicago. They will be building some top-bar style hives for us and, well, I am just stoked to have met them!

2. We have some exciting partnerships with bicycle-minded businesses in Chicago and the Midwest at large. Firstly, Bikes at Work reached out to us and will be providing us with a bike trailer that will suit our needs perfectly! We're also partnering with Chicago Cargo in spring to deliver the hives and bees to their new community garden homes. Here's a great article about him on GRID Chicago. I was worried that at this step we'd have to use a car, but NOPE! We're keeping it on bike! And lastly, Grinderman Coffee is going to be donating all of their untreated burlap bags to us for use in our bee smokers. I am SO happy to build these partnerships and work to promote their growth!

3. By the time the Kickstarter ends we will (hopefully) have all of our hive locations confirmed! We will have hives as far north as Roscoe Ave, as far west as Pulaski Ave, and as far south as 46th! This will be a huuuge expanse, but we're ready to go the distance! Over the summer my awesome team of videographers and I are going to film a webisode at each hive site so you'll get the opportunity to know your local farmers.

All right! So in about 4 days your credit cards will be charged and we're gonna start placing orders for equipment and getting your gifts ready to ship! What can you do in the mean-time? Keep the "buzz" going! Keep tabs on us via Facebook where we've been posting neat things and updates. Also, we've updated our PRESS page!

Great news! We're fully backed! And we couldn't have gotten here without YOU! I am feeling so blessed, thrilled, excited, and eager to begin the work that's ahead.

When the Kickstarter phase of Bike·a·Bee launched, the only thing I could think about was whether or not it would get funded. I thought about what I would do if it didn't - and how rad it would be if it did. But here we are today, fully funded with 18 days to go, and I am overwhelmed with excitement.

What will we do with any funding we receive above and beyond the initial $7,000? Well, I've been brainstorming with some really smart people, and I think we're going to pursue a honeybee educational program aimed at young Chicagoans. To that end, any extra money will go into buying more bee veils, as well as creating educational and promotional materials.

Bike·a·Bee began as a tiny dream, but now it's a full-fledged reality. We're going to populate community gardens with pollinators and generate lots of honey to share, that part's for certain. But now we can begin expanding our community education plans even further, perhaps by leaps and bounds beyond what we did have planned for the $7,000 mark.

Now is not the time to let up on the gas, though, because keeping the funding a comfortable amount over the $7,000 goal ensures that we won't run the risk of going unfunded should someone pull out if they think the rest of us have it covered. So your continued support and social media promotion is still needed! If we keep the good momentum going, we can go above and beyond our goal to make Bike·a·Bee even more special.

Hugs and honey!

Jana