Honeybees and Community Gardens

Community Gardening in all of it’s manifestations is a proving ground for experiments in social and ecological sustainability. Read How. Community Gardeners have kept honeybees in their gardens for many years. As gardens mature and gardeners focus on sustainability and how community gardens impact the environment more community gardeners are becoming beekeepers or inviting beekeepers to set up hives in the gardens.
Beekeeping in NYC and other cities has increased tremendously a cities have created urban agriculture policies that include beekeeping. Some cities like NYC have rescinded laws that made keeping honeybees illegal. In NYC, honeybees were classified as ‘venomous pests”.

I’ve been beekeeping on and off for about 25 years. Initially as a volunteer beekeeper at Wave Hill in the Bronx, for many years helping other beekeepers (and learning from them), maintaining hives at gardens run by my former employer and for about the last 6 years keeping hives at locations around Staten Island. I learn something new about honeybees and beekeeping almost everyday. Many people I speak with are fascinated by honeybees and will often grill me about misconceptions they have about bees.

“Are they aggressive? Do they sting?”

No they are not aggressive. Honeybees are searching for pollen and nectar from flowers and you are not a flower. They will sting but you have to be threatening to them in some way. Often when someone is stung it is a yellow jacket, wasp or hornet that is the culprit so don’t be so quick to blame a honeybee. There are 3500 species of bees in the United States and 20,000 throughout the world. The vast majority of bee species are solitary bees, often they nest in the soil or in cavities in trees,  shrubs and even our homes.

Bees have evolved along with the plants they pollinate. A variety of bee species are responsible for pollinating one third of our food crops. Bees also contribute to biodiversity by cross pollinating native species. There are many benefits that bee species provide to various ecosystems.  The honeybee is the only species that are managed by humans to pollinate food crops and to collect honey and other hive products.

“Is there really only one queen? Why don’t they have more than one queen?”

Yes there is only one queen per hive. She lays all of the eggs that eventually populate the hive after the larvae are fed by the female worker bees. The male drones sole role in the colony is to impregnate a virgin queen. The social structure of the hive and their defenses are well served by having a solitary queen. All of the bees in the hive carry the scent of the pheromones of the queen on their bodies. The guard bees defend the hive from any invaders that don’t have the queen’s pheromones.

Why are honeybees having a hard time surviving?

There are many factors. Climate change often disrupts the hive with severe weather such as extreme heat, extreme cold and intense storms. Pesticide use, in particular Neonicotinoid pesticides weaken or kill hives. Habitat loss where honeybee forage sites are developed put stress on the colony. Hive pests which range from the tiny varroa mite to the giant bear.

“What can I do to help?”

My favorite question. As individuals we can help counteract the factors that are contributing to hive loss. First, don’t use pesticides or herbicides. As bees forage for pollen and nectar they will come in contact with the residue of spraying. These small amounts of herbicides or pesticides can weaken and eventually kill bees and bee colonies. Second plant flowers, trees and shrubs that bees will use as food sources like some of the plants in the above list. If you don’t have a space to plant, you can join a community garden, volunteer with a local herb society or with a local parks department or donate to or join a group whose mission is to help pollinator species.

http://pollinator.org/
https://thepollinationproject.org/
http://millionpollinatorgardens.org/
http://www.pollinator-project.com/
https://www.nycgovparks.org/greening/greenbelt-native-plant-center/bee-watchers

Third, buy local honey and hive products. You will be getting something sweet while supporting local beekeepers efforts to help the bees survive.