Backyard Orchard News
If Happiness Is a Butterfly...Check Out the Solano County Fair Exhibits
If happiness is seeing a butterfly, then a visit to McCormack Hall during the annual Solano County...
Colorful butterflies adorn this quilt made by LaQuita Tummings of Rodeo. She enters the Solano County Fair's quilt division every year. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Front: Gloria Gonzalez, superintendent of McCormack Hall, Solano County Fair, and her assistant Ian Mayhew, 12, of American Canyon, display the front of LaQuita Tummings' quilt. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Back: Gloria Gonzalez, superintendent of McCormack Hall, Solano County Fair, and her assistant Ian Mayhew, 12, of American Canyon, display the back of LaQuita Tummings' quilt. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hand embroidered needlework, intricate work by Laura Ryan, Vallejo, is displayed at McCormack Hall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Linda Douthit of Fairfield created and sewed this blossom-butterfly vest. A veteran 4-H leader, she was active in the Suisun Valley 4-H Club, Solano County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Turn Linda Douthit's vest over, and you see this: more butterflies and blossoms. She a regular exhibitor in the Solano County Fair. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tina Waycie of Vallejo entered this quilling (paper arts) in the adult division. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Meet the Bugs at the California State Fair
A sign at the California State Fair's Insect Pavilion, aka "Bug Barn," screams "Bugs, Stay...
Visitors wander in and out of the California State Fair's Insect Pavilion. The 2017 fair ends July 30. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug enthusiasts get a closer look at the specimens shown by the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A California State Fair educational display in the Insect Pavilion about cockroaches and beetles. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee forages on a sunflower just outside the Insect Pavilion. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The honey bee stops and eyes the photographer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Show Me the Honey: From Your Bees!
Imagine watching your honey bees gathering nectar from star thistle--which some beekeepers claim...
A honey bee foraging on star thistle, Centaurea solstitialis. It's an invasive weed but makes great honey, beekeepers and honey connoisseurs say. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey comb being processed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The colors of honey sparkle in the sunlight. This photo, taken in 2009, shows former UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey (now of Washington State University) and her then assistant, Elizabeth Frost (now of New South Wales) at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Celebrating National Moth Night at the Bohart Museum of Entomology
The first moth to arrive was the alfalfa looper moth, Trichopusia ni. But the most striking:...
This was the scene at the blacklighting display Saturday night, July 22 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Greg Kareofelas (far right) had just set up the display. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the butterfly and moth specimens at the Bohart Museum, talks to Prerna Jain and her son Prakrit Jain, 13, of Los Altos. Prakrit will be attending the Bioblitz in Belize this summer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bohart Museum associate and UC Davis entomology undergradate student Lohitashwa Garikipati (center) talks about the Bohart Museum's live petting zoo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Donald Trump moth, Neopalpa donaldtrumpi, is a permanent part of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Bohart scientists collected the new species in the Algodones Dunes, and it was named by evolutionary biologist and systematist Vazrick Nazari of Canada. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis Is Place to 'Bee' Sept. 5-8 for the Western Apicultural Society Conference
UC Davis is the place to "bee" on Sept. 5-8 for the Western Apicultural Society's 40th annual...
The Bee Team: Eric Mussen, WAS president, and his wife, Helen, his assistant in planning the WAS program. They are pictured by Miss Bee Haven, a sculpture by Donna Billick that anchors the Häagen Dazs Bee Haven. A tour of the garden is planned during the Sept. 5-8 conference. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)