City of Bees: Notes of an Urban Beekeeper | Hacker News Reader

City of Bees: Notes of an Urban Beekeeper

plough.com

70 pointslermontov15 comments

"It is not my world. Despite being called a 'keeper' I have no control here. I am an observer, capable perhaps of small assistance for the needs I see, or of compensating for the limitations of the manmade boundaries that I put them into. I don’t understand half of what is going on; I am often reminded of that. I can discover a problem only to find the bees are already halfway to fixing it themselves."

Wonderful. Thanks for sharing

I have a fun bee story to tell. Last week I was at a small cafe with a garden at the rear where they keep some hives (set back from where customers can sit)

Anyway we were sitting down enjoying a coffee when we suddenly hear this loud sharp buzz sound whipping above us, and it's someone flying a small drone, doing flips etc.

Two seconds later this monstreous swarm of bees emerges from their hives and basically engulfs the garden leaving everyone screaming and fleeing.

It might have been a coincidence, but the owners reckoned the drone probably spooked them, the huge buzzing sound might have sounded like a hornet or some other threat

One theory is that loud buzzing-like noises can drown out their ability to communicate. So some of their communications are through pheromones but they also use a buzzing dance to communicate nectar locations. So the theory is that things like lawnmowers and weed eaters make it so they can't communicate and that makes them defensive. This is usually due to the volume and had to be close to the hive. It's possible the higher pitch of the drone more closely aligns with their buzzing and doesn't need to be as loud to be disruptive.

So my wife and I placed some lavender and other pollinators at the mailbox at our house. Fortunately it has grown well and now when I grab the mail every day there has to be around 20 bumble bees going around doing their thing. It’s cool to see. We have a garden but also try and plant pollinators and other types of plants too just to try and recreate a little bit of an ecosystem.

I've read that people that deliver mail don't appreciate the bees.

Yea maybe. The ones that are at our mailbox don't really bother anyone - they're just grabbing pollen. I grab my mail from the box everyday. Though one thing I didn't think about was someone potentially allergic to bees, but I'm not willing to accommodate everyone.

In the case of the mail I'd rather they didn't deliver anything anyway. It's just spam. Anyway...

If you like problem solving and are content with learning as you go, bee keeping is one of the more fringe activities out there. Bee keeping used to be a very popular activity but has since fallen out of favor, most likely due to an effect of population density. Reach out to your local clubs. Be sure to hold onto you hats because its a wild ride and you are not the one driving!

Wouldn't the horrendous pollution up there poison the honey to the point of being, well, not very good for you? Same way as fruit and veggies grown on the side of a busy road aren't exactly fit for human consumption

Im unaware of any studies that look at toxin levels that specifically compare a city hive verses a rural hive. IMO the greater concern is the source of nectar, as bees will store any source of "nectar" even if its a couple drops of sugar from a soda can. I would be hard pressed to even consider it 100% honey as the original source could very well not be from organic sources.

> I would be hard pressed to even consider it 100% honey as the original source could very well not be from organic sources.

Because English is weird, I'm not sure if you mean organic as in from plant/animal I would be hard pressed to even consider it 100% honey as the original source could very well not be from organic sources (yes, bees will make honey from animal sources, such as wood lice) or "not sprayed with pesticides".

In Denmark Chinese honey is mostly known as "fake honey" because it's made by bee, but from sugar water, and not nectar.

Organic honey, as in "not sprayed" is almost impossible to make in Denmark, as it requires a 3km radius from there hive, where no chemicals can be used. While in Sweden, as an example, it just has to be primarily organic, as in as long as no chemicals are used directly in front of the hive, you're allowed to label it "Organic".

We are starting our first apiary this year!

It always strikes me as odd when articles like this portray the individual working with animals as having, or wanting to have, some sort of closeness to nature, or reverence for the natural processes that support the life they seem in awe of. Because invariably, they then feel some sort of entitlement to interfere with the processes and steal from them. In this case it’s honey, but we do it to so many living things.

Having respect for these natural creatures and processes means letting them live on their own without a sense of entitlement to steal from them. Honey is for the bees, not you. You don’t need it, and they do. Let them be(e) and just bask in the fascinating world of the hive as only an observer, not an intruder (as the author says themselves!)

> Having respect for these natural creatures and processes means letting them live on their own without a sense of entitlement to steal from them

Like maybe we should have some respect for bee keepers and let them do their thing without going on the internet and telling them they are living their lives wrong....

Sarcasm aside, I think it is very important to prioritize sustainability and treat everything in nature with respect. But that does not mean that we, as humans, should never interfere with nature. How could we live in that case? Basically all organisms interact/interfere with other organisms all the time. It is what it means to participate in an ecosystem. Humans need to focus on having a positive impact on their ecosystem in stead of just "letting them live on their own". Particularly in the case of bees, I am not a scientist, but I expect it is better for the ecosystem to have more bee keepers keeping more bees, even if they take some honey, then it would be to leave the bees to fend for themselves....

I never said I don’t respect anybody, for what it’s worth.

Also, I believe we should try to minimize our impact on the environment, which means not messing around with animals when we don’t need to survive, as is the case with bees. I agree with you that it’s impossible to live without disrupting natural processes, but we can aim to do as little as we need.

And honey bees are often extremely detrimental to native bee species which are also pollinators, so having more honey bees being kept by beekeepers can be actively very harmful [1].

1. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-...

If the metric for being nature friendly is "doesn't interact with nature" I have bad news for you. If being a bee keeper is a crime against nature I hope you don't drive a car, live in a man made structure or eat processed meat.

You seem to think Humans are some sort of entities living outside of the realm of "Nature", we've been working/using animals/plants for as long as human exists, hell, most other animals do it too.

Bees are "stealing" pollen from flowers to store it as food, we're "stealing" honey from bees to use it as food.

Someone harvesting his own honey from his hives certainly is closer to nature than someone buying honey (produced god knows where and in what conditions) in a supermarket.

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