NY市内で養蜂家が増えている•The Buzz about Bees in NYC

Backyard Beehives

去年、世界中で起きた蜜蜂の異常減少の危機を感じたNY市は大勢の人に危害を被るとした禁じていた養蜂を許しました。それによりNY郊外で養蜂家を営んで いた方々が、今までは農家さんや大きなガーデン（野菜に花畑）を持つ資本家さんに、NYで自宅ガーデンや屋上での養蜂家が増えています。

巣箱を貸したり置かして頂いたり、巣箱を買い取って頂いての養蜂メンテ ナンスをしたりしては、採れた自家製の蜂蜜をグリーンマーケットで販売していました。

Smoke Calms the Beehive

そして今や危機を補う花形の職業として認識され始め ています。
怖がらず素晴らしい蜂蜜の生態を勉強さえすれば誰にでも営むことが可能だと、マンハッタンビレッジで期間のみクラスを開き講師を受け 持ってもいます。

世界中からのメディアが彼を追いかけては取材に追われ蜂蜜のように大変に忙しそうでしたが、養蜂で危機を救えればと頑 張っています。巣箱の蜂蜜の周りには、蜂達が集めた地域の花粉が豊富で、怪しげなケミカルな薬よりも、花粉が舞う時期に小スプーン一杯で花粉症にも素晴ら しく効くとモテハヤされています。
蜂蜜はマンハッタン産のモノを売っていますが、驚くほどマイルドで美味しい味です。（笑）

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City Roof Beekeeping

After a 2-year campaign by JustFood.org and others, as of March 16, 2010, Beekeeping has become legal in New York City! Please don't squeak in fear and horror, because this is a good thing!

Domestic honey bees are not interested in stinging humans, they're concerned with gathering pollen and making honey to provide for the hive. Aki had a chance to meet and talk to Andrew Coté, a 4th-generation beekeeper in Connecticut, and owner of Andrew's Local Honey who is helping to educate NYers about honey bees. According to Andrew: “Honeybees are interested in water, pollen and nectar; the real danger is the skewed public perception of the danger of honeybees.”

The fact is that bees are in trouble - and that means we're in trouble, too!

Pesticide usage, single crop farming,  new pathogens and pests have contributed to wiping out millions of colonies. And recently, a mysterious affliction known as "colony collapse disorder," has come to the fore, in which much of a colony suddenly disappears, leaving the queen behind.
Read More About Colony Collapse Disorder - Source: Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Working with the Hive

So far, scientists have not been able to determine the cause—or come up with a solution.(My guess though, is that the usual suspects who are busily messing up other living creatures, including humans, are somehow involved…)

From ABC News:
"One in every three bites of food you eat comes from a plant, or depends on a plant, that was pollinated by an insect, most likely a bee," says Dennis vanEngelsdorp of Penn State University's College of Agricultural Sciences. Read more…

Do we want a giant Monsanto-esque company taking the bee's rightful place in the environment? I don't THINK so; so be tolerant neighbors to New York bees and they will pay you back with sweetness and abundance!

Bees Being Busy

Interesting facts about bees:
•Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work.
They clean the nursery, care for and feed the larvae, collect nectar, make wax, guard the hive and fan their wings to keep the hive cool. Later in life a worker takes her first orientation flights and finally leaves the hive, typically spending her retirement as a forager.

•The large male honey bees (drones), have no stingers. They fulfill their only purpose by mating with the queen. After mating once, they die. Extra male bees are kept on standby during the summer for mating with a virgin queen. Because they are of no use in the winter, drones are killed or expelled from the hive in the autumn.

•The queen bee mates with her drones in flight.
She can live up to 5 years and is the only bee that lays eggs.

•Honey bees communicate with one another by "dancing"

•Bees cannot recognize the color red.

•Honeybees are not born knowing how to make honey.
¥ounger bees are taught by their more experienced "sisters".

•Honeybees are not native to the USA. Our bees are European in origin, brought to North America by the early settlers.

•Honeybees, not aggressive by nature,  will not sting unless protecting their hive from an intruder or are unduly provoked.

Bee Food is Always Elegantly Served

"If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live?" -Albert Einstein

Links:
When bees were NYC outlaws:
New York Times -
Bees in the City? New York May Let the Hives Come Out of Hiding
Colombia News Service-
Give Bees a Chance

You can buy Andrew's honey here at-
Tompkins Square Greenmarket
City Hall Park Greenmarket
Union Square Greenmarket

Local Bee Celebrations, Classes in Beekeeping:
Centennial Bee-day, Saturday June 12, 2010
Celebrate Bees, Learn about Bees - all day through!
Central Park • Beekeeeping Classes -Every Sunday through Dec 31, 2010  FREE
The textbooks for the class are also free!

日本語/明　English: Liz