Here's an absolutely lovely video about a beekeeper-artist-visionary in Hong Kong named Michael Leung. I love what he says about moving slowly, calmly, in a Zenlike way when working with the bees, and I love his steadfast attitude toward the work he's doing to promote all sorts of important connections that, for many, have been lost but now are found.
Nokia - HK Honey from The Silentlights on Vimeo.
The New York Times has just published a quite wonderful, and mournful, meditation on the lost flora of New York City by the Executive Director of N.Y.C. Wildflower Week.
I highly recommend taking a look, whether or not you live in NYC, as a motivating meditation on the importance of finding ways, large and small, to help replenish and restore this battered world.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Check out these pics of yesterday's daring honeybee rescue adventure in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
Andrew Cote of the New York City Beekeepers Association led the rescue brigade; here's an excerpted version of Andrew's report on the escapade:
Some of you know that we at the New York City Beekeepers Association (www.nyc-bees.org) will do just about anything for honeybees. We received word a couple of days ago that a tree in Brooklyn had fallen, was resting across wires, but the tree men could not remove it since there was a colony of honeybees living within. There was talk of poisoning the hive. So we at the NYCBA sprung into action.
Bob, whose house it is, took lots of pics and put this all up - amazing! The bees are not featured so much since the event went pretty flawlessly. We got there early enough to screen the bees in before their morning flight, and though a little time consuming and nerve wracking to be under the heavy branch near the wires, all worked out well. Not a single bees was harmed, and only two were spotted on the wrong side of the screen.
Those concerned will be happy to know that the log that is the honeybees' home is now upright in the original position, and situated in my front yard in Connecticut. The bees seem none the worse for wear though they did not enjoy being bounced around in the back of the van for a couple of hours.
Wherever danger threatens honeybees, wherever there is pollinating to be done, whenever we are needed, we will be there.
Lots of fun stuff re. urban beekeeping these days. It's clear we're in the midst of a major upsurge in the department of cityfolk-doing-rural-things.
Visit the City Bees blog, where bee-blogger Toni takes us on a tour of the White House bee hives!
Meet the keeper of the Clinton Community Garden beehive in Hell's Kitchen, New York.
Listen to a recent WNYC profile on the NYC Beekeepers Association.
Check out this recent conversation about the value of beekeeping in NYC and the status of the efforts to make it legal with the Executive Director of Just Food and a leading honeybee researcher. (Scroll down until you see "The Buzz Around Town.")
The New York Times has been running a nice series this week wherein the Executive Director of Just Food has been answering readers' questions about all things food-, ag-, and sustainability-related.
I submitted two questions and today, one of my questions (about bees, of course) was answered. Here's the item. Also discussed: community-supported agriculture, food justice, and ferreting out locally grown legumes.
Here is the first set of questions and replies, in which urban chickens, community gardens, and locavore-itude in an urban context are discussed.
Two exciting developments had us leaping out of bed and rushing to blog this morning.
The first is this fabulous item on the City Bees blog about the new beehives at the White House. The photos here are borrowed from the blog; you'll definitely want to rush right over to the City Bees page to see more cool pictures ASAP.
The second installment in this morning's Department of Thrills is this friendly article entitled NYC Buzzing With Bees, about the NYC Beekeepers Association, our friends Andrew and Kelly, and the burgeoning interest in urban beekeeping here in our fair city. Check it out.
And while you're at it, do sign up to join the mailing list of the NYC Beekeepers Association to be apprised of the group's upcoming activities.
Spring is here on so many levels. And a welcomed groundswell of attention is being paid to sustainable farming, community-supported agriculture, urban food-growing, and all that good stuff.
We're pleased to see that the Executive Director of Just Food—a NYC-based organization that, among its many other good works, is seeking to get beekeeping legalized in our fair city—is being featured in one of the New York Times' Q&A columns.
So go ahead, Ask About Local Food in New York!
Nice article in Scientific American on urban beekeeping, which includes a quote from our friend Andrew of Andrew's Local Honey.
The New York Public Library has a cornucopia of online exhibitions, and I was pleasantly surprised to happen upon its not-so-new but still worthwhile Urban Neighbors exhibit on urban fauna, with sections on historical neighbors, street and backyard neighbors, shore and wetland neighbors, tiny neighbors, salt and freshwater neighbors, etc.
Gliding through these images (samples of which appear on this page), you'll find your rats and pigeons, of course, but you'll also find your snakes, woodpeckers, frogs, raccoons, osprey, dragonflies, and even whales. 
The exhibit includes a sighting log of NYC wildlife and a list of further resources for those seeking to explore urban wildlife more fully.
If you live in or around New York City, now's your chance to help promote the legalization of beekeeping here in the Big (inadequately pollinated) Apple.
Just Food has been working hard on dual fronts (NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene and the City Council) to get beekeeping legalized here in NYC, just as it is in several other major U.S. cities.
Sign the petition. (I believe that, once enough signatures are collected, the petition will be circulated to the City Council and perhaps NYCDOHMH during this critical period when the current laws pertaining to beekeeping are under active review).
Learn more and download a factsheet on the many benefits of urban beekeeping by visiting the Just Food website.
Wending my way around the Internets on this grey and not-so-snowy morn, I came upon a gem by artist Zina Saunders: a portrait of/interview with urban beekeeper David Graves, an individual who will be familiar to anyone who spends time at the Union Square Farmer's Market here in NYC.
If you like this piece, check out the artist's amazing series on Overlooked New Yorkers. This terrific series includes portraits/interviews featuring city knights, subway musicians, bike messengers, rooftop pigeon guys, mushroom hunters, scuba divers, amateur astronomers, and many other fascinating urbanites nurturing cool obsessions.
An example of what Gary Snyder might call "the larger sanity":
A man with vertigo scales the 52-story New York Times building without rope, harness, or parachute to make a statement about the urgency of global warming.
Thank you, Alain, for popping over from Paris to remind us of what we already know and aren't yet doing nearly enough about.
Alain Robert: The Solution is Simple
