Bee Watching

How about a gorgeous slide show of New York City bees to get your wintry mind rolling in a summerly direction?

Bugging Out on the NYC Subway System

There's a lot of great public art in subway stations throughout NYC thanks to we the taxpayers and the Metropolitan Transit Authority's Arts for Transit program.

En route to the New York Botanical Gardens earlier in the week, I was pleased to find this bee walking the wall at the Bedford Park Blvd. stop on the 4 train.
The bee is a detail from a glass mosaic by Andrea Dezsö titled Community Garden, 2006. As the name suggests, these whimsical, shimmering images evoke the flora and fauna of a garden setting, with plenty of great-looking bugs lurking here and there.

Several of the subway art installations in NYC focus on natural subjects, including kinetic dinosaurs at the stop near the American Museum of Natural History, dramatic undersea creatures at Houston Street, and stately penguins at Fifth and Fifty-Ninth Street (near the Central Park Zoo).

You can take a virtual, station-by-station and line-by-line tour of this art on the MTA website by clicking any of the links above and then navigating (bottom left of the page) to the station or line you'd like to explore.

Nice Op Ed Piece on Beekeeping in NYC

Over the weekend, the New York Times ran a wonderfully supportive Op Ed piece about the legalization of beekeeping in New York City. Take a look.

Press Coverage Round-up on the Legalization of Beekeeping in NYC

Ahhh...I feel lighter today as if...a ban...has been lifted...from my shoulders....It's great to wake up in the city where keeping bees is no longer a crime.

One of my hive-mates at the NYC Beekeepers Association was kind enough to round up some of the extensive press coverage on the overturning of the beekeeping ban in NYC yesterday.

Before presenting the media coverage, though, I'd like take a moment for the "First Things First" department. Let's recognize and honor the hard work of the people at Just Food, which led this charge so ably and so well. Here's a summary of their efforts. We all owe them a debt of thanks.

Here are some of the many media stories about the "banning of the ban," for the newshounds among you.

NBC News, "Big Apple Lifts Beekeeper Ban"

The Globe and Mail, "The Big Apple, Where Honey Talks"

The New York Times, "NYC Abuzz: Sweet Deal Makes Bees Legal"

On Earth, "Sweet News: New York City Dumps Beekeeping Ban"

LA Times, "Sweet News for Colonies: NYC Legalized Honeybees in a Boon for Keepers of Rooftop Hives"

HuffPo, "New York City Officials Decide to Allow Beekeeping"

Have you seen other notable coverage on the lifting of the ban? Leave a comment and let me know!

Beekeeping is Legalized in NYC

It's official. As of this very sunny morn, the ban on beekeeping here in New York City has been lifted!

All hail the many individuals and organizations who worked so hard to make this happen.

The week begins...

with the hope that, in the next few days, some good news will be coming down the pike for New York City beekeepers and wanna-beekeepers. See this article in today's New York Times.

If you're a New Yorker with an interest in beekeeping, now is a great time to become a part of the New York City Beekeepers Association. Join NYCBA's Facebook page to keep up with the latest. And sign up for our official mailing list by visiting the NYCBA website.

NYC Denizens—The Time to Help Legalize Beekeeping is Upon Us!

Folks, there are only a few days left to do your part to get beekeeping legalized in NYC! On or before 5 p.m. on Wed. Feb. 3rd, please take a moment to send your message in support of modifying the NYC health code to allow beekeeping by emailing your message to: RESOLUTIONCOMMENTS (at) health.nyc.gov

You can learn more here. And, to spark your creative juices (if, indeed, juices can be sparked), here's the letter I emailed to the NYC Health Department just moments ago:

It is my pleasure to submit these comments in strong support of legalizing beekeeping in New York City. As a lifelong resident of this city, I know how important it is to improve the ecological balance here and to support a level of biodiversity that benefits human, plant, and animal alike.

As a weekend beekeeper and gardener in upstate New York, I have come to love the company of honeybees. Their extraordinary role as key pollinators has increased my garden’s yield exponentially. The pleasure of observing them at work is unparalleled. The hum of their labor is a joy to the ear. I seek these aesthetic pleasures in the city too, and rejoice when, come springtime, I am lucky enough to see a honeybee working the blossoms of a crocus in a neighbor’s garden. I only wish such sights and sounds were not so rare.

My neighbors in Brooklyn—many of them old-timers who have been here for many decades—lament the disappearance of honeybees in their gardens—a presence they enjoyed and benefited from. They seem fascinated when they find out I am a beekeeper—they want to know more about the bees; they want to tell their own bee-related stories; they are concerned about the threats bees face.

I mention all this because I think it’s become almost second nature to underestimate the toll on urban residents when, bit by bit, traces of the natural world are eradicated, threatened, or diminished. I think we lose our sense of history and place, and humanizing opportunities to revel and participate in the fascinating world of nature—which is, of course, our world (even in the city).

By legalizing beekeeping, we can increase public education about the importance of bees and the natural world so often overlooked in our busy urban lives. We can more openly educate urban beekeepers on safe, neighbor-friendly beekeeping practices. Our local gardens will certainly benefit. Our connection with self-sufficiency and awareness of where our food comes from will increase. The rich aesthetic pleasures associated with the sights and sounds of bees and their hives will become more available to those who desire them. And we’ll all be able to increase our access to local, New York City honey produced by the sophisticated, urbane bees who call New York City home.

Thank you for considering these perspectives.

Sincerely,

Gerry Gomez Pearlberg

Those, gentle reader, are my two cents—now go ahead and add your two cents to the discussion if you're a New Yorker with an interest in this issue. We really need to make this happen! You can learn more about this effort and the hearing next week by visiting our friends over at Just Food, who are working so hard on this venture.

"Vanishing of the Bees" Fundraiser in NYC on 2/4/10

If you're planning to be in NYC on February 4th, consider lending your support to this fundraising event for "Vanishing of the Bees," a documentary that explores the potential causes of Colony Collapse Disorder.

Tickets are only $20 and the directors of the film will be on hand to show selected clips and discuss their work on this timely project. Space for this event is limited, so RSVPs are required by January 28th. I'm ordering my tickets just as soon as I upload this post.

Learn more about the "Vanishing of the Bees" project here.

Kid Bees in NYC

My bro sent me this picture, taken over the weekend at some sort of eco-event at Madison Sq. Park in Manhattan.

NYC Wildlife: Woodcut Prints by Lisa Studier

A friend has been making these delightful woodcut prints of wildlife found in New York City: bats, birds, butterflies, turtles, and others. Here's hoping she decides to try her hand at our urbane honeybees.

Counting Bees in NYC

If you live in NYC and can count, you may wish to help out with a citizen science project to count bees in the five boroughs.

The Times did a nice article about this project today.

Full details on the NYC bee-counting project can be found on the Bee Watchers page of the Great Pollinator Project.

Big Apple Beeks

Here's a nicely done video from National Geographic about beekeeping in NYC.

NYC Beekeepers Have a Great New Hive!

Yesterday's meeting of the NYC Beekeepers Association had a great crowd and featured excellent presentations on the presence of pesticides in honey, a lively discussion of some of the issues surrounding the ongoing "mystery" of Colony Collapse Disorder, and the impressive efforts of Just Foods to make beekeeping legal in New York City (it's perfectly legal in many other U.S. cities, including Chicago and San Francisco).

You can take action to help legalize beekeeping in New York City by visiting Just Foods' Food & Farm Issues page.

And while you're at it, join forces with an exciting new group of urban beekeepers, environmentalists, gardeners, and freelance bee-lovers by becoming a member of the NYC Beekeepers Association. The organization is offering beginner workshops in urban beekeeping and an urban beekeeping mentoring program in February and March, so sign up for the e-newsletter while you're visiting the site.