Reinventing Honeybees

The dramatic loss of a quarter of the United States' honeybee population has spurred an educational effort on the species. I admit, before colony collapse disorder, I didn't realize how many basic agricultural crops must be pollinated by bees.

The next phase in that campaign is likely to focus on urban beekeeping. After all, with more and more urban gardeners, the need for urban bees is growing. And some are looking to urban hives to ameliorate the effects of colony collapse.

But many cities — including New York — prohibit beekeeping in their health codes. Some of the archaic language in these code is almost Biblical in its judgment of the "venomous insects," as New York's calls them. An effort to legalize beekeeping in the Big Apple has resulted in a bill and, this week, a public hearing.

And in the educational video below, created by Just Food, featuring such basic reassurances as: "Bees like to eat nectar and pollen; not people."

Laws governing beekeeping vary from city to city, and it's possible that if New York legalizes the practice, others will follow. On the other hand, maybe New York is the laggard: Beekeeping is already legal in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Atlanta and Minneapolis.

Hidden Hives Tour from Just Food on Vimeo.

Photo credit: Wolfang Hagele