[Pollinator] NPW - Hoping to Generate a Bit More Buzz - NYC

[ladadams at aol.com]

Hoping to Generate a Bit More Buzz
 Benjamin Norman for The New York Times
POLLINATION CAN BE FUN

Published: June 23, 2009
THE Beekeepers Ball, held Monday night at the Water Taxi Beach in the 
South Street Seaport, was, among other things, a lesson in coalition 
politics.



Benjamin Norman for The New York Times


Honey bees are shaping up to be the latest urban agricultural 
must-have, the new backyard chickens.

The wrinkle is that beekeeping is illegal in New York City. Fines, 
while rare, can run to $2,000.

The law is precisely why the nonprofit group Just Food organized the 
ball to kick off its Pollinator Week in the city, which includes 
special honey menus at restaurants and a honey festival at the Union 
Square Greenmarket.

In January, David Yassky, a City Council member, introduced a bill to 
lift the ban, written with help from Just Food; it’s currently with the 
Committee on Health, waiting for a hearing.

Bees may be sexy; signing petitions and phoning politicians, less so. 
But Jacquie Berger, the director of Just Food, clearly knows the adage 
about vinegar and honey.

And honey was certainly in evidence at the Water Taxi Beach: 
honey-coated pork ribs, hot dogs with honey mustard and burgers in 
sliced honey-glazed doughnuts.

The beer, provided by the Brooklyn brewery Kelso, was infused with city 
honey and whipped up specially for the occasion. A vendor sold20
delicious honey-strawberry ice pops.

The proprietors of the Long Island Meadery were on hand, passing out 
samples of their syrupy honey wine. They usually market the stuff at 
Renaissance fairs and gatherings of armored re-enactors. Though new to 
the locavore crowd, they were definitely used to serving costumed 
drinkers.

John Howe’s beekeeping suit was not a costume: it was his beekeeping 
suit. As founder of the New York City Beekeeping Meetup Group, Mr. Howe 
provides an online home for beekeeping fans, and sponsors classes, 
bringing what he calls wanna-bees into the fold. When he started his 
first rooftop hive in 2002, he knew of two or three beekeepers in the 
city. Now, he knows of at least 40. Lately, he has been spending more 
time fielding calls from the news media.

So has Andrew Coté, head of the New York City Beekeepers Association. 
He rattled off a list of other American cities with strong, legal 
beekeeping scenes, and expressed indignation that New York was not 
among them: “We are not followers in this city!”

Meanwhile, a 5-year-old girl in a bright yellow beekeeper suit was, 
unbidden, quietly handing out Beekeepers Association business cards. 
Her brother, in a similar outfit, played in the sand. Their mother, 
Mara Tippett, got the suits so the children could help with the hives 
at her home in Neshanic, N.J.

Ms. Tippett’s sister, Anna Bridge, is on the Pollinato
r Week organizing 
committee. Ms. Bridge, a lawyer who lives in Sunnyside, Queens, doesn’t 
want to defy the ban. “I have to live vicariously through other 
people’s bees,” until the law changes, she said. Jacen Bruni, another 
lawyer, set up a hive on a Brooklyn rooftop this spring. “I kind of 
feel like the law doesn’t exist,” he said. “But it is a burden, 
something that hangs over your shoulder.”

Leaning against the bar, John Bernard, burly and gray-bearded, looked 
over the crowd. He is an apiary inspector with the New York State 
Department of Agriculture and Markets. If the law does change, his job 
will get a lot busier — something he would relish. He has kept bees at 
his home in Croton, N.Y., since the early 1990s. His wife read about 
the ball online, and he decided to come down to check out the emerging 
urban scene. “It’s wonderful,” he said.

Mr. Bernard emphasized that his department had no interest in playing 
Big Brother. “All I want to do is keep bees alive,” he said.

As he spoke about his duties — examining queens, checking mite levels — 
an appreciative crowd of young beekeepers formed around him. Several 
expressed a longing for the kind of oversight and assistance the state 
offers, and were eager to talk shop.

A woman asked about swarming. Swarming, Mr. Bernard pronounced, is not 
a pr
oblem. It’s just something bees do.