[Pollinator] Beekeeping in Chicago

[Ladadams at aol.com]

>From the Huffington Post reporter Joseph Erbentraut, Jan. 13  -  
Bike-a-Bee Hopes To Take Urban Agriculture In Chicago To The Next  Level  
For one Chicagoan, an ideal community garden means so much more than 
patches  of fruits, vegetables and plants. And Jana Kinsman has set about 
broadening that  scope by taking urban agriculture in the Windy City to what she 
sees as the next  logical level: urban beekeeping. 
Kinsman has launched Bike-a-Bee, a project aimed at "connecting Chicago  
greenspaces, community gardens and urban farms with beehives that need a nice  
sunny spot to live," according to its Facebook description. Kinsman, an 
avid  cyclist, intends to maintain the project by riding her bike, equipped 
with a  small trailer, to visit and care for the project's beehives, which she 
hopes  will be located throughout the city. 
In order to offset the project's costs, including  the purchase of hives, 
bees and honey-processing equipment, _Kinsman has created a Kickstarter 
campaign_ (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janakinsman/bikeabee) . Rewards 
for  contributors include raw honey from the hives, a silk-screened poster 
from the  project and more. Continuing our "Can They Kick It?" series, 
profiling aspiring  local crowdfunded projects, HuffPost Chicago spoke with Kinsman 
to learn more  about what inspired her ambitious plan. 
HP: How is the Kickstarter going so far? Are you more anxious about  the 
fundraising or what sounds like quite a bit of work you'll have to actually  
launch this project?
JK: The campaign is the scariest part right now  because, if it doesn't 
succeed, then I won't get any money to fund the hives and  bees and any of the 
equipment I'll need to install the hives into community  gardens and green 
spaces. Before I launched the Kickstarter, I talked to lots of  those spaces 
and asked if I brought them hives, whether they would be down to  have them. 
Lots of them were excited about it and thought it was a great idea,  so I'm 
feeling great about that part. Actually installing them seems daunting,  
but I'm excited about it at the same time. This is something I've never done 
and  I really love the idea of having a new experience I can tie in with the  
community that's supported Bike-a-Bee so far. It's like a road trip to 
somewhere  you've never gone before, a nice adventure. 
(Scroll down to watch Bike-a-Bee's Kickstarter campaign  video.) 
I definitely get the impression from reading about this project that  the 
fact that it's so community-based was really important to you. Why is it  
that you wanted to involve community spaces rather than more private  spaces?
I feel like community gardens exist so that the vegetables  and plants and 
the insects and animals around them can be in a public space so  that 
neighborhood kids and anyone living there can come visit and see the  process of 
how their food could be grown. I felt we shouldn't ignore the  pollinator or 
bee aspect of it, because people might be curious about how  honey's made. 
It serves as an educational tool to tie in curiosity about honey  and 
honeybees with learning more about urban agriculture. 
You wrote on the Kickstarter campaign page that you thought up the  idea 
after coming across a similar project in Eugene, Ore. But prior to that, to  
what do you attribute your interest in beekeeping?
I really look  back to being a little kid and being really fascinated by 
insects. Every summer,  I would raise monarch butterflies and I was fascinated 
with caterpillars and  honeybees to a degree. In college, the economic 
collapse happened and I was  getting more into organic foods and sustainable 
agriculture, and I was  understanding that honeybees were hurting because of, 
most likely, unhealthy  agricultural practices. The honeybee became this 
mascot of the system  failing. 
 


I got more into it because the Chicago Honey Co-op was holding classes on  
beekeeping and I thought that would be really fun and see if this is 
something I  could do. I enjoyed it, but I didn't know where I'd be living this 
past summer  and didn't have the space to set up and maintain a hive. I went to 
Eugene to get  some hands-on beekeeping skills, which worked really great. 
I came back and  spoke with the co-op and started volunteering at farmers' 
markets with them.  They became great friends and a great resource. Their 
kindness put me over the  edge in terms of getting Bike-a-Bee launched. 
One thing that makes Bike-a-Bee different from projects like Blessed  Bee 
Apiary in Eugene is the biking half of it. What did Philip, the man who runs  
the Eugene project, say when you told him about Bike-a-Bee?
Philip  was the first person I talked to about it and he said he thought it 
was a good  idea. It was an idea I was playing around with in Eugene, and 
when I got back to  Chicago and started talking to people about it, everybody 
had a really nice  thing to say about it and was really encouraging, 
feeling this is really timely  and important. I think the only neutral feedback I 
received was whether it was  dangerous, the kind of fear-based question 
people ask. But, in general, when I  told people I was doing something like this 
on my bike, they said it would be a  lot of work carrying all the stuff 
around. But I'm a big cyclist, so I'm just  taking it all in stride. 
Tell me more about your cycling, which is interesting that you bring  up 
given that winter has finally hit here in Chicago. Are you a year-round  
cyclist in the city? Any advice for novice cyclists considering trying out some  
winter biking?
When I first started cycling in the city, it was a  really big deal to do a 
trip like six miles, but I've gotten to a point where I  do everything on 
my bike. My biggest concerns in winter are the warmth of my  toes and hands. 
Depending on how long your trip is, you need to make sure you  regulate your 
temperature. Once you're sweating, you don't want to get so hot  that 
you're producing a lot of sweat that can stay in your clothes. Lots of  layers 
are good and you want to make sure you have a chain lubricated with  
winter-appropriate lube, which you can get at a bike shop. I want to encourage  
people that it's possible to ride in winter. It's just as fun as summer and  
makes you feel pretty bad-ass. 
I understand that there have been some positive developments in urban  
agriculture recently in Chicago. How does Bike-a-Bee fit into that  trend?
Chicago currently has no laws pertaining to beekeeping, like  how many you 
can have or where you can have them, so the city hasn't been much  of a 
deterrent at all. The biggest issue has been securing space, which has been  
pretty easy so far. I think that beehives, in general, are something that can 
be  on a farm, like kale, carrots or apples or whatever. I feel the city and  
community is ready for even more growth in urban agriculture and that this 
is  the next step toward doing that. Another step would be having chickens 
or goats  in those gardens, because now they are mostly just plants. I think 
everybody's  ready for something like this to happen. 
Anything else you want people to know about  Bike-a-Bee?
I'm just a person like anyone else trying to do this  little project. It's 
been great to have a wonderful response from the community  around me, not 
necessarily other beekeepers or even necessarily foodies. That  community 
aspect has been really great and every little bit of support helps. As  far as 
beekeeping goes, I want people to be open to it and to bees themselves.  
They're an important part of our agricultural system and I'm hoping people will 
 see this and maybe explore the idea of how to keep bees healthy to avoid  
suffering from _colony collapse disorder_ 
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/07/colony-collapse-disorder-_n_754478.html) . And in terms of the 
biking aspect,  I want to be able to show people you can do anything on your 
bike. 
As of Jan. 13, with  24 days to go, the Bike-a-Bee Kickstarter campaign has 
raised more than $3,100  of its $7,000 fundraising goal. _Click here to 
learn more_ (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janakinsman/bikeabee)  and 
help the "buzz-worthy" project  become a reality. 
Get in touch with us at chicago at huffingtonpost.com if you have a  
Chicago-based Kickstarter or IndieGoGo project that you'd like to see featured  in 
"Can They Kick It?"
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