PKO now joins the Rev. in the history books.
We had a great turnout, not only in numbers, but in the level of engagement. Almost everyone stayed until the very end, leaving around 10:30 PM on a weeknight.

Congratulations, Philadelphia!

Next week will be a big week for Langstroth fans.

First, I want to remind folks to join me as I travel down to Philadelphia on Thursday, January 21 for the Philly Kick Off. I hope to see a lot of you there to support this first event of a year-long celebration of the 200th birthday of the Father of American Beekeeping. I'd love to talk with you, face to face, before or after the event.

You can buy raffle tickets to win a Hive Kit donated by Brushy Mountain Bee Farm and subscriptions to Bee Culture magazine donated by the publisher. Haagen-Dazs is joining us by providing ice cream for attendees of this free event. Check out their Help the Honey Bees Web site.

Also next week, the US Postal Service Citizen's Stamp Committee will have their quarterly meeting with Langstroth on the agenda. If you haven't sent them a letter, this is your last chance before they formally consider creating a commemorative stamp in honor of Langstroth. We have heard from hundreds of you via email. We have sent the Committee all the of the messages we received before the end of 2009, and will sending a follow-up batch on Monday.

L.L. Langstroth "… was born on Christmas Day, 1810, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his grandfather, Thomas Langstroth, a Yorkshireman, had settled about 40 years before…. Philadelphia, the capital, seaport of a rich agricultural region, was thriving with industry and commerce and seemed likely to become the metropolis of all the Atlantic seaboard of North America." (from America's Master of Bee Culture by Florence Naile)

Today begins the 200th year of Langstroth. In a few weeks, at 7:00 pm on January 21, we will kick off our LLL200 activities in his home town, Philadelphia, with a gathering. On the agenda for the evening is a trip down memory lane with Barbara Ceiga, of the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia. She will describe to us the pivotal place in the history of American Science that Philadelphia was in Langstroth's day (as Prof. Julie Newell of Southern Polytechnic State University reminded me).

There will be lot's more going on that evening. We'll be raffling off a Brushy Mountain bee hive kit and subscriptions to Bee Culture Magazine. There will be live music, refreshments and lot's of discussion about Langstroth's life by "Bee Man" Marc Hoffman and Langstroth researcher, Matt Redman, planning for the First Annual Langstroth Summer Honey Festival, and a special exhibit at Bartram's Garden... and more.

Mark your calendar, set your GPS for USG, and
Bee there!

They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. I can't really draw a hard connection, but, it's undeniable that just weeks after we posted our hoop-house raising video on the Down to Earth Web site, the USDA has posted their White House hoop-house raising video on YouTube.

Watch them both on the Hooping-It-Up page and you'll see that when it comes to hoop-houses, at least, ours is bigger!

Thanks to ScienceFriday.com visitor David I. from Maine for bringing that state on board as 34 out of 50 in response to this blog. Only a few more states left, but only a few weeks until the Postal Service Stamp Committee meets....