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[00:00:00] Introduction

Thank you all for jumping on here and being here for the first Ask a beekeeper for the year. So these live sessions are gonna be scheduled for every third Thursday, which today is the third Thursday. They’re gonna be at 7:00 PM Eastern time. So hopefully if you’re in a different time zone, you can still have a chance to get on in the evening.

And they’re meant for everyone to join. You don’t have to be a beekeeper to be here. If you are a beekeeper, you’re gonna get some good knowledge. If you’re not a beekeeper, you’re gonna get a lot of extra trivia that you can use on your friends and share with others.

So what we’re gonna be doing, there’s gonna be people in these sessions who have absolutely no experience beekeeping. There’s gonna be people in these sessions who have decades of beekeeping experience. So Really it’s gonna be for everyone. Doesn’t matter where you’re located. We’re gonna be talking a little bit about some things that are specific to the Northeast the New York City area, because obviously that’s where I’m based.

But I do expect to hear from beekeepers and hear about questions from beekeeping in all different places. So with all of that, if you guys would drop your city and state in the chat just so we can see kind of where everybody is.

 I think we do have some new faces on the Zoom call. So I’m gonna go ahead and kind of properly introduce myself to anybody who I haven’t met in person. My name’s Nick Hoefly I’m a certified Master Beekeeper through Cornell 

I’m a professional beekeeper here in New York City. I manage more than 50 hives around the city. Some years it’s a little bit more, some years it’s a little bit less, just depending on what I’ve got going on. I do a lot of teaching of urban beekeeping and really teaching of responsible beekeeping.

So that’s one of the big things that I educate about because anybody can put up a hive and anybody can buy bees and you don’t have to have a special license or. Anything like that. But the real trick at taking care of the bees and being a good keep beekeeper is being responsible and knowing how your bees affect the environment, how your bees affect other beekeepers and other hives and, and all of that.

So it’s a big holistic approach and I do a lot of that through, of course, our apprenticeship program that we do at our teaching apiary in Forest Hills, Queens. I also do mentorships where I actually go to people’s houses and help them with a monthly house call with their hives.

So it’s a lot of fun. I get to meet a lot of different people and kind of see a lot of different ways that people are keeping bees. So it’s very interesting. I also speak at events. I do public speaking like this at B Clubs for organizations, for a lot of different things like that. So this just seemed like a really natural thing to do to get on and start doing these.

If you do know anybody who needs speaker to talk about beekeeping please reach out. I talk to school groups. I talk to organizations, nonprofits, bee clubs, all kinds of different groups. So I, this year I am doing a little bit more as far as putting out content. You may have come here through my site, nyc beekeeper.com. That is now very active. I’m posting weekly on there. I’ve just sent out the first monthly newsletter called The Forager, which is a collection of interesting stories about beekeeping or pollinators or something in that topic.

And so you can go on the website and sign up for that. If you wanna receive those, you can follow me at @nycbeekeeper on pretty much all the social media to see all of the deeper nerdier beekeeping stuff.

That’s a little bit about me. I’m gonna start off the session now talking a little bit about. You know, what we’re doing as beekeepers at this time of the year because beekeeping is a seasonal craft that relies on timing. Everything is timing and beekeeping. So it’s important to start understanding your season. You’ll get better and you’ll understand the bees more if you are working with them and with what they’re doing at the time of the season that you’re doing it.

[00:04:01] The Beekeeper’s Calendar

Right now it’s January. There’s very limited things that you can do with the bees themselves. what I’m doing are light inspections. This is just on a nice day maybe popping the lid and looking down into the inner cover to see if the bees are up against the inner cover.

If they are up against the inner cover, then I know I need to feed them. I’m putting some solid food on them and making sure that they’ve got enough food to get them through the rest of the winter. That’s a really critical thing for honeybees. They can go through the winter just fine.

But it’s the last few weeks of winter before the dandelions bloom that are really critical for the bees to get through. Many times I’ve had hives that were strong and healthy and seemed great all the way through February, and we get into March and just had some real cold snaps and it just took ’em out.

 That’s what we’re trying to prepare them for is that last bit of winter that they’re gonna have to get through. This is a great time right now to order equipment or to repair equipment from last season. You might also think of ordering your bees if you, if you have a hive that has died or if you’re planning to start beekeeping this season, you wanna order your equipment and your bees sooner rather than later, because many times the bees will be sold out or the equipment will be back ordered and it just won’t all be ready for your season.

The last two things are to build on becoming a better beekeeper. Number one, take a class or course there are lots of classes online that you can take, courses you can take. You can sign up for classes and mentorships and other things like that like I provide and you can find a beekeeper in your area to help you out with that.

There’s lots of apiaries that provide these services, and no matter where you are, you’ll be able to find somebody. If you can’t, you can always look at joining a club. Almost every city has a local bee club. They’re wealth knowledge. There’s people in the clubs who have been in these clubs for decades and know how to take care of the bees, and they put on their own classes.

And there’s just lots of, lots of resources there. So these are all good things to do. 

[00:06:06] Thoughts on Ventilation

So John, I’d love to hear your question. think you were talking about some equipment. 

Yeah. Being my first year, obviously I’ve, I’ve read, read the beekeeping for dummy’s book. I keep it my car, and whenever I have a chance, I, I always pick it up and reread whenever I can and I watch videos and I’m part of the beekeeping beginners group.

That’s how I ended. I think I came across your, your link. So, but yeah, as a new, as a new beekeeper right now I’m focusing on equipment. Right. Bees are ordered, but right now I’m trying to do everything I can and equipment is all I have. So I’m, today I was, I was pondering ventilation and, and what it takes to, to give the bees proper ventilation in the different times of year.

And in particular, I was thinking about the inter cover. Because I noticed some have notches on them that, so, so that you can flip it over. And then obviously they have the hole in the center. My local beekeeper talked about shimming, the, the top cover to give more ventilation through the, I guess through the inner cover those sorts of things.

So I was just curious what your thoughts were on the different times of year when to use the different ventilation options. 

One thing I wanna preface this with and this is something that if you haven’t already heard it, you’re gonna hear it as a beekeeper, when you ask 10 beekeepers, you’re gonna get 11 answers.

 Everybody’s got their own way. Everybody swears by a different way. So I try to swear by nothing. But as far as ventilation goes and shimming different pieces of the hive really it all depends on. You know, your climate for us here in the city, especially up on top of a rooftop in the heat of the summer, I like to keep that upper entrance open so that the bees are able to push air out the top as well as through the totally open front entrance at the bottom.

A lot of my hives, I keep screened bottom boards on as well, so hopefully they, they’re not quite as you know, he held in the, the, there’s a lot of air that can move through the bees no matter what you do. The bees are gonna figure out a way to ventilate their hives. So unless you’re closing up every entrance and closing down the main entrance to nothing and, and blocking off everything else, they will figure out a way.

You’ll see in the heat of the summer that they’ll, all, the bees will be at the different entrances of the hive and they’ll be fanning to pull air in or out. And so this is one of those things. There’s, you’re gonna find some people who are very, like, set on, you know, you have to have certain the inner cover has to be flipped over so that they have the upper notch for from here to here, and then it has to be closed to here, to here.

And it’s, you know, the bees are kind of, know what’s best and they’re gonna they’re gonna take care of themselves one way or another. I always like to tell people that a swarm will make a home wherever they see fit. Whether that’s in a wall or in a tree, or in a tractor tire or in a meter a water meter covering the bees will make a home wherever they need to.

So don’t sweat the, the small things as far as, you know, different things like that. That’s my long-winded answer for you. The, the one time though that I will say that I consider either closing off extra entrances or, or adding more is if I’m into the end of the summer and I’m dealing with our dearth, which is just a drought of blooms.

There’s nothing out there for the bees to really forage. So they will start turning on each other and, and one hive may try. Rob out the honey from another hive. So in that case, if I have a weak hive, I’m gonna close up as many entrances as I can and I’m gonna make their, their main entrance small so that they have less real estate to to protect less, less of a, less of an entrance to protect.

And so that, that’s really the main time that I’m gonna be dealing with that. But ventilation is, is something that they need, but they, they will figure out a way for most of the times of the season. 

Cool. Interesting. Thank you. Absolutely. 

Have you gotten your equipment yet, or is everything just ordered?

Yeah, no, I, I, part of it was hand me down. My uncle actually had some old equipment, so I got some bottom boards. I got one deep and two top cover. Or, or two inner and top covers. So I ordered some, you know, three more deep so that I can have two deeps for each hive and ordered some frames. And like I said, I’m getting to two nukes.

So it was kind of a hodgepodge. I don’t, they’re, unfortunately they’re not vented bottom boards. But I, I mean, I understand that that, and, and I don’t know if we need ’em, it’ll be in a somewhat shaded area. So they won’t, it’s, yeah, it’s you a as you get through your first season and into your second season, you’ll start realizing, you know the screen bottom board versus the solid bottom board debate is one that beekeepers will have.

And you know, in my experience the bees just kind of figure it out, right? They is one better than the other, you know, maybe in a very specific situation. But those, these are things that I, I wouldn’t worry about too much. I would, I would worry more about in your first year The, the timing of things being able to have someone that you can bounce questions off of which you can come to these every month if you like to, but if you have a local beekeeper that you can reach out to, who knows your climate at your location you’re gonna get better answers than just asking you know, someone from somewhere else on the internet.

And they’re gonna be able to really tell you about the nuances of your area, what’s blooming, what’s, when the nectar flow happens, when swarm season is all of that stuff. And that all varies based on location, based on, climate, whether you’re up north or down south and, and so on. So there’s a lot of vari variables here.

Yeah. Fortunately, the, the keeper that I’m friends with is five miles away from me and. He’s got 40 hives. He’s a very old gentleman. He’s got a lot of years of experience, so I look forward to working with him. I have been able to put my suit on twice so far and just help him at the end of the season last, last year.

But that’s, that’s the only experience I’ve had so far, and it was, I absolutely loved it. So I’m really looking forward to, yeah, those are the great people to know. Yeah. Those guys with, you know, 30, 40 years of experience they’ve got all kinds of tricks that they can share with you. . I look, look forward to learning them.

[00:12:27] What are you looking forward to most this season?

So for, for the folks who have not kept bees at all is there anything what, what are you looking forward most to this.

 Honestly, I’m really looking forward to meet the bees. Like, you know, it’s pretty cool to have, like, I used to be scared of bees, but ever since I first got into a bee suit, a beekeeper suit, it was a while ago, but you know, that really took my fear away. And now I’m really interested by bees and I’m excited to really see how they create the all the different products that they make inside of their beehives, how it works.

And I’m just excited to see basically everything cuz bees are cool. 

That’s a good answer. I like it. Yeah, it’s, it’s incredible when you start seeing, you know, the results of what all this ac crazy activity is that’s happening at the hive and the bees are buzzing all over the place and it’s like chaos.

But you’re gonna slowly see how like, it’s a very organized chaos and there’s lots of things that are happening. Because there’s thousands and thousands and of members of this you know, clockwork that’s happening inside the hive. So it’s really exciting to start piecing all those things together and seeing like, oh, the bees are doing this so that they can go and do this.

And and then they do this. So the queen goes here and she lays the eggs here and, you know, it’s all this kind of very obvious clear things that don’t look so obvious when you first walk up to it.

Yeah, Nick say the same. Oh, go ahead. I feel like I keep No, no, it’s okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was just gonna say the same, like I haven’t kept bees. I had one opportunity where I was able to hold a frame that was like covered in them and I definitely felt like this like, you know, excitement slash anxiety.

So I think I’m probably in a state where I have to still get over the fear. I’ve never been stung by bee either, which I recognize is like, you gotta do it so it’s gonna happen. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like that, those kind of like positive and negative interactions I think are just the types of things I’m looking forward to.

I’m also looking forward to like the kind of stuff that you don’t see people post on social media all the time about bees. Like, I’ve never seen bees in the winter. I have no idea what that looks like. I don’t know what it means, like when they’re not active or anything like that. So I’m kind of just excited about learning about the full scope of beekeeping and not just like the cool parts.

Well, I think Mike can attest. It’s not all sunshine and roses and, and everything. There’s, there’s some tough parts that you gotta deal with, and it’s everything from the physical labor of the, of the beekeeping. Honey is heavy. People never tell you this, but honey is heavy, especially full boxes of it.

So yeah, there’s lots of there’s lots of things that until you have bees or are around them for a full season, you know, it’s, I think it’s really gonna you’re gonna learn a lot for sure, whether you want to or not. Nathan I think is looking to ask a question here. So whenever you’re ready.

[00:15:27] Have you seen Colony Collapse Disorder(CCD)?

Can you guys hear me? Yes. Okay. So this might be a bizarre question, but s. Here, there are no dumb questions. So I’m into entomology, right? And I’m, I’m basically studying on my own time, basically the specialists decline. Basically we’re talking about bees, wasps, or wasps, mosquitoes, all these vital specialists that we need.

And I was wondering if you yourself, have seen any signs of colony collapse disorder, like in your profession of beekeeping? So for anybody who doesn’t know, colony collapse disorder was kind of a umbrella term that was really prominent in the mid two thousands when commercial beekeepers would go out to their bee yards, where they might keep 200, 500, a thousand hives and like 70% of the hives.

There would be no bees in them except maybe a few bees in the Queen. Like all the workers would just leave and disappear. So it was coined colony collapse disorder. We don’t see that so much. We don’t see these like big events where like 70% of a API is just gone. But there, the colony collapse disorder is kind of not specific enough to talk about all the different things that happen with bees and all the things that are working against them in terms of the environment habitat loss you know, pesticide use and, and poisons and things like that.

I think more and more the research is showing that there’s like a combination of all these things that are. Causing colonies to either weaken over time, excuse me, weaken over time or just not be able to be productive enough to to thrive, to take care of themselves and get themselves to the winter.

So there’s lots of things that go on with it, and it’s not, there’s not any one thing that is, like, this is why colony collapse disorder was happening. And really I think in, in the beekeeping community colony collapse disorder is not a it’s not really spoken of anymore because we have these kind of more specific things to talk about.

As far as my personal experience I don’t, I have never personally seen a hive where the the bees had left and it was just the queen, you know, and that kind of ace, like they were finding them In the mid two thousands. Yeah. For me there’s, there, there have been times where I’ve had a very healthy, strong hive one month, and I’ve gone back out the next month.

And either the, the cluster was just very small and there was lots of dead bees on the bottom of the hive. Or other cases where the Hyde was just completely empty and the bees had absconded. So but those, there are reasons for that. Sometimes when they’re sick, they will just leave at the end of the season.

Sometimes at the mites, the, they, there’s a pest called a varroa mite if it Oh yeah, those guys . Yeah. If it’s too if it’s infested the hive too much, then that m might load or that viral pressure that they’re getting from for the transmission of the viruses through those mites. Those things can also cause a colony to kind of crash. But more, more times than not, you know, a lot of times it’s the beekeeper who’s also either made some bad decisions along the way or didn’t make the right decision at the right time. And you know, a lot of times in beekeeping, a colony crashing is our fault.

[00:18:55] Neonics

So so yeah. Okay. Cause like, I was basically like researching like the basic signs and basic why it happens. And they were saying like, bees have, like, due to neonic or ne. To, I, I’m not gonna say the whole word, Neo. Gonna say Neo. Yes, yes. They, and in, in kind of the industry, they call ’em neo nicks for short.

But it took me a year or two before I could pronounce that word correctly. I, I didn’t even know it was neo, like neonics, I just call it neos . I don’t know if it’s correct, but I was like researching it and like, it basically raises the cortisol in the bees, basically stressing them out. And basically, I’m pretty sure they’re known to die by a stress, which is super relatable first of all.

But second of all, like it’s, it’s just like, I think Neomix basically raised the cortisol high enough where bees often feel like they’re overworked or they’re in this little point where, I, I don’t know, . I don’t know where I was going with it. Burn fart, . Yeah. Well so neo necks are a class of pesticides that there are some countries that have already outlawed them.

And I see a New York bandit. . I don’t know if you yet. We have not yet. Ah, so there’s, there’s a there’s a bill that’s, that they’re trying to get through the legislature right now. And in at one time it passed the house at another time it passed the Senate. Now they’re trying this year to get it passed, both.

And so it’s called the Birds and Bees Act, if you wanna look it up. But yeah, we have not here in this country neonicotinoids are still out there and, and still being used in agriculture. Yes. And. The prevent or the just stop, the usage of this will save so much, save so much to the inside kingdom.

I cannot express how much it would save it. So all those are everyone listening, please, please start making a change or something. I’m, I’m trying to start from the bottom up because that’s how you make a change, but I’m, I’m here in Nevada, so . Well, a great, a great thing you can do just as an individual is that when you go to you know, the, the big box improvement store, home improvement stores, you can check the tag of any plants that you’re buying.

And a lot of times on the back of the tag, it’ll tell you if it’s if the plant itself was treated with munix or if Yeah, it should, it should be labeled on the back of the tag. And even better, you can go and support one of you know, a local nursery instead of the big box store. So those are some good ways to, to kind of avoid those in your, just in your immediate area.

[00:21:50] Are honey bees native?

Okay. I’m gonna, I’m gonna pass it now to Jodi. She’s been raising her hand for a little bit. What’s your question, Jodi? Yeah. So I’m a member of a community garden and people take having native plants there very seriously, and I was wondering how that related to native pollinators and the types of bees.

I had heard that, oh, Italian bees are the best bees or whatever, but how, what kind of bees do you keep in New York and what kind are kept here and are they. Considered native to the area. And what is the effect of that being true or not true? So honeybees in general, no matter what breed they are, are not native to North America.

They were brought over by the Europeans several hundred years ago. So at a certain point, you know, they’re, they’re not like an evasive species, that species that was introduced, you know, in the last few decades. They have the honeybees, they’re a giant Asian Orna, sorry, , right? Yeah. They, the, there’s a lot more in species that have been introduced very much recently.

But honeybees are, are one of those species that kind of adapted here and more or less fit into the, the natural ecology of the continent. Beekeepers in general, We, or people in general started to cultivate these honey bees and keep them. And so there are places where the honey bees are, you know, if there’s too many, the high density of a certain area, it’s too high the bees are gonna outcompete themselves.

They’re also gonna outcompete any other insects who are also feeding on a similar forage. So through that lens, it’s important to kind of know what’s around you. In terms of other beekeepers, in terms of, you know, the amount of hives that are in an area this is very important in an urban area because New York City, no matter where you go in the city you’re probably a hundred yards from a hive, you know, maybe a few hundred yards from a hive in some places.

But there are so many hives around the city that. There are certain neighborhoods that if someone says, Hey, I have a backyard. Can you put some hives there? I end up having to turn them down just because I know there’s, you know, three beekeepers within a two block radius of that person. Or I know there’s, you know, 15 hives close by.

So my neighborhood, I live in Astoria in Queens, and my neighborhood is just packed with hives for some reason. There’s lots of beekeepers here. There’s other places I know parts of South Brooklyn are not so dense. So the beekeepers down there do pretty good when their hives are filling up with honey here in Astoria.

You know, sometimes it can be an uphill battle to get one full box off of a hive. Excuse me.

So anyway, bees are not native. And in certain situations that are mismanaged, they can outcompete the native bees and the native pollinators that are there. However, on the flip side of that, there are lots of places, urban places in particular where the urban sprawl has really choked out a lot of the wildlife that’s in an area.

And having honeybees there brings in a pollinator that may not have been there or may have been pushed out that can pol can pollinate certain plants that need a special kind of pollination. So for example, if a if a certain type of bee was pushed out of an area and it pollinated a certain type of plant if you don’t have one, you don’t have the other.

Kind of thing. So if you have honeybees to come in, they are generalists when it comes to pollination. So they will forage on most anything that they can find, and they will be able to kind of support the pollination of of those plants that didn’t have those pollinators anymore. I know that’s very general terms there, but there’s, there there’s a good reason to have honeybees as well.

I think everything in moderation, everything should be you know, taken into consideration when you’re putting hives somewhere. But there’s definitely a place for honeybees in community garden you know, on a rooftop wherever in a city. We just have to do it with some thought. Thank you. Sure.

[00:26:24] Bees in decline?

Nathan is saying notice less and less bees as the summers go on. Yeah. All different types of pollinators. So there’s been, there’s definitely been a decline in. Insect populations in general over the last few years. You see it every once in a while. They’ll talk about it in the news, but the bees are not immune to that.

And certainly some of that could be Neos and, and those other things. But it’s a, it’s an important thing that we should all start to not just see that it’s happening, but do something about it. And you know, there’s lots of organizations out there who are working to do something about it.

I full transparency. I work with the Bee Conservancy as well. I’m their apiary manager. They have a number of hives around the city and I help them with their program and, and kind of Keep all their beekeepers on task and, you know, getting things done is when they need to. But organizations like the Bee Conservancy the Be Informed Partnership there’s the I’m blanking on it right now.

There’s a Honeybee Health Coalition. There’s all these organizations out there who are doing a lot for pollinators and you know, we vote on these things with our dollars and where we spend our money. And so doing things like I was saying earlier, you know, Buying your plants from a local florist or a local nursery rather than the big box store.

Or, you know, deciding to eat organic vegetables as opposed to conventionally grown vegetables. Little things like that go a lot a long way when everybody’s doing it, but we just gotta get everybody to do it. Let’s see.

[00:28:06] Do beekeepers like wasps?

Nathan asks to beekeepers such as myself, view wasps positively, negatively, or neutral wasps such as German wasps.

You know, as far as I’m concerned, their wasps have evolved and are around for a reason. Wasps evolved from the same common ancestor with bees. Our honey bees have, you know, descended from. Wasps. So there’s definitely a place for them. They are there to help clean up the environment to help decompose or you know, clean up those things that have died.

So I’m, I’m for them except when they are attacking my bees. And so in that case, I try to keep the, keep the wasps or keep any nests that are close to my hives down. I also try to keep my hives strong enough that they can protect themselves. So they also you know, a wasp can do a lot of damage to bees, but the bees can work together and, and keep the wasp before it can do any damage.

So if you’re keeping, if, if your hive ends up getting weak, then you can have issues. Which just last year I, I was working with someone who they. Saw some activity in their hive last fall, and it seemed fine. And we open up the hive and there wasn’t a single honeybee in there. It was all yellow jackets.

So that’s a, that’s a situation where they’re not, they’re not my favorite, but, you know, they’ve got their place and I’m, I’m not gonna go out and try to kill everyone that I see. 

[00:29:32] Are there any bee clubs in NYC?

So Jodi’s asking about different B clubs in the area, and I’m assuming you’re talking about the New York City area, correct?

Yes. Okay. So the short answer is that we don’t have any there are some organizations that Put themselves out there as clubs. But unfortunately if you were looking for a kind of traditional B Club that’s run by the its members and has regular turnover and, and things like that we just don’t have that here in the city.

And so because of that, I personally go out to the Long Island Beekeepers Club which holds their meetings in either Smithtown or Brentwood generally. And they have monthly meetings that are they always find great speakers. They have some of the most I wanna say the Long Island Beekeepers Club has maybe the most master beekeepers in, like in the state.

I know our state apiarist MA was making that comment recently. And so they have a lot of people that you can. Talked to a lot of people that they can draw on to give great presentations. And so I’ve had a really great time out there and, and made some new beekeeping friends and and I’ve had so much, so much fun with that club and I’ve enjoyed it so much that I do ex I do more work with them and I last year I became a board member with them.

So so I get to help kind of steer the club and, and make things happen for the club and put things on. And so it’s a lot of fun and it’s for be clubs in general. You know, you can go and you can do as little as you want or as much as you want, and they’ll be happy to have you volunteer or, or do anything extra that you’d like.

There, oh, sorry. I’ll, I’ll just mention real quick, there’s also We’ve got some really great bee clubs in North Jersey, so just over the river. And there’s also some just like really notable master beekeepers as well over there who they put on great presentations. I know we’ve had we’ve had some of them come to the Long Island Beekeepers Club to put on different talks.

So we’ve got them. There’s a few clubs that are not too far north of the city that you can get to but you’re gonna have to drive wherever you go if you’re living here in the city to get to a, a real club. Like I said, here in the city, there’s some organizations that kind of put themselves out there as clubs.

Excuse me. They put themselves out there as clubs, but there’s not really, you know, the, the president is always the president. The You know, they put on their events, there’s not really any way that you can go and, you know, be a part of it like you can with other clubs. So that’s the reason that I head out of the city for a club.

[00:32:13] What do you need to start a hive in NYC?

So as a new beekeeper won’t even really officially call myself that. I feel like the first thing you tell people when you’re interested in beekeeping and that you’re taking an apprenticeship is like, oh, when are you gonna have your home hive and give me honey and all this stuff.

And I’m kind of curious what the bare minimum is to start a hive. You talked a little bit before about how there’s no licenses in New York. I didn’t really realize that. I kind of thought there was and also you mentioned like be beehives nearby, like how many are near unis story. And I honestly never even realized that that would be a factor.

I kind of thought like, you have your own backyard and like there you go. But yeah, I guess besides like the materials and the bees, like what are the, what’s the standards for an environment and stuff like that?

So starting a hive is much easier than trying to deal with other types of livestock where you need, you know, plenty of space so they can run around or they can do their own thing.

For a hive, you just need approximately a I tell everybody you need about four feet by four feet to really move around the hive and be able to comfortably be around it. I’ve seen hives in much smaller spaces. But, you know you could put a hive on a balcony. You can put a hive on a tiny little rooftop somewhere tiny little backyard.

I, I work with several folks who their backyard is maybe 10 feet deep to the fence and they have bees, you know, basically right outside their door. So. Beehives can be put in a lot of places really tiny spots. And then as far as the, what you need to get going, you need a hive kit. So that’s gonna be your, your components of the hive.

We’re gonna go through all that, and you’re gonna be real well versed in all that during this apprenticeship. But so you need the equipment, you need the bees, you need your gear. So that would be your jacket, your hive tool, your smoker. The veil is usually part of the jacket. So you need all that stuff.

And then the other thing is about knowing the, the beekeepers around you. And there’s not somewhere where you can go that just says, okay, here’s all the beekeepers. In New York City, you do have to I am gonna say, register your hives just for the sake of making it easy. It’s not a real like a full registration.

There’s no fee involved or anything like that. In fact I think they call the form a letter of notice and you just fill it out and you email it to the department of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene who oversees the beekeepers in New York City. And that’s it. There’s no approval.

There’s no fee, there’s no nothing like that. Last year, New York State instituted mandatory registration which sounds a little scary, but again, the state doesn’t charge a fee. And There’s, all you do is download a form. You actually no. For the state, they, they have a form you fill out on the website.

So you fill it out and submit it there. There’s no downloading anything. So they make it real easy. There’s no cost involved and you don’t have to like, be approved or, you know, get a license or anything like that. New York City is a very bee friendly city. So there’s, you know, as long as you’re not putting bees like right next to the sidewalk or right under your neighbor’s window or somewhere where they’re gonna be an obvious nuisance you could put ’em really wherever.

Hmm. They have a couple guidelines, but nothing that really says like, you know, you can’t have hives at all, or you can’t have them, except for a very specific. Condition or anything like that. So it’s a very friendly city, especially when you consider going out to Jersey or going out to Long Island.

A lot of the different towns have very strict, specific guidelines for beekeeping that I think Nassau County in general kind of prohibits it, even though there’s lots of beekeepers in Nassau. Mm-hmm. So, so yeah, we’re, we’re lucky to be in New York City and that they’re so nice about it. And the beekeeping community in general is you know, very good about sticking to the rules and being responsible with it.

So there haven’t really been any big issues. Sweet, thanks. 

Yeah. I am seeing that we’re coming up on eight o’clock right now. So anybody who needs to go. Don’t feel bad about cutting out. I will stick around for a few more minutes if there were any other questions or anything else that anybody wanted to discuss.

[00:36:46] Do you need insurance as a beekeeper?

Yeah. I had a question about liability. So if you have hives, do you have to worry about liability insurance? If your neighbor gets stung and says it was your bee who strung me, how do you handle that? So for me as a business, I have liability insurance that covers me. You know, if there’s any accidents because hive was dropped on somebody’s foot or because of honey was sold and somebody got sick from it or something like that the bees actually stinging people.

There’s not really, I don’t know of any beekeepers here in the city who have had, who have dealt with that or had any kind of litigation brought to them. In general there are honey bees everywhere, so you know, if you wanna get technical and, and try to have a argument about it, they’d really have to prove that it was your bee and it wasn’t a bee from , you know, a hive three, three blocks away, cuz that’s somebody else’s bees.

And there may be a hive in a tree somewhere close by, that’s nobody’s bees. That’s may, that maybe it’s a city’s bees, who knows. But you know, it’s one of those things most people put their hives in a kind of inconspicuous place wherever they’re gonna be. And So when your neighbors don’t really see the hives, they don’t really notice the bees.

I can tell you on my roof, I don’t do this anymore, but a couple years ago I had about 12 hives on my roof, and I’m in a I’m in a townhouse. Basically. I’m attached on both sides about 18 feet wide and 45 feet long. And I’m only, my roof is only two stories up. So my bees are going up and out, they’re going all over the place.

But if you’re walking down my my sidewalk, you don’t really notice the bees you know, unless there’s flowers out. And unless you’re going up to the flowers and checking, it’s not like they’re coming out of the hives and sticking right around. They, they go up and out and really they’re foraging in all the trees.

They’re not really forging in like everybody’s, there’s only so many flowers in every little. Yard or every little planter along the, the residential streets. So the bees are going up and out and generally for insurance purposes though you should, if you’re gonna put hives up on your roof or, or somewhere on your property you should check in with your homeowner’s insurance to see if they’re covered or if there has to be an amendment or anything like that added to your policy.

But for me, I’m, I carry liability insurance as a business and basically the liability insurance I’m covering is, is in case we you know, stick in case we damage property when we’re there, not necessarily for stings. Thank you. 

[00:39:26] What do you think about the Bee Movie?

Sure. Go ahead Nathan.

So as a beekeeper , I’ve always wondered this question, what’d you think of the Bee movie ? 

So I actually became a beekeeper well after that movie came out. And I, I don’t know that I’ve seen the movie all the way through. I’ve seen large parts of it having young kids. It’s been on our TV a few times.

And it’s just, it’s not it’s, it’s an accurate portrayal for its story, but it’s not an accurate portrayal of what happens in a hive. So it’s, you know, it’s, they’re just using, using bees to tell a story. But it’s very much. The first thing is that the drones aren’t gonna be going out and collecting honey or doing any of the work like the main character does.

[00:40:20] Do bees and wasps just sting for no reason?

Speaking of drones, that reminds me somewhere to the wasps. And you were talking about how wasps MBS can brand stop from each other. Do bees also have drones that basically like, cause watch some drones when they feel like their time is up. They basically just fly into a person and just sing them and just die.

Do bees have that same process as well? 

So I’ve never, I’ve never read anything about bees. Actively going out to sting. Generally bees are not territorial. Wasps are territorial. Hornets are territorial. So when, if you get too close to their nest, they may come at you. They also have smooth stingers so they can sting you once and pull out the stinger and sting you again, and over and over.

With honeybees, their stinger gets ripped out of them when they use it. So it’s very much a a last resort type instinct for them to use it. And bees in general honeybees, bumblebees, any of the 20,000 species of bees that are in the world they are they’re not as aggressive as wasps.

They’re not out to go after people because there’s nothing that people have that they want the, they’re vegetarians. And so they’re looking for flowers and as long as you’re not in the way or you’re not threatening them, they, they won’t do anything to you like that. The bees that sometimes there are bees that are sick and they will fly off and just never come back.

But they’re not flying off to like, you know, go finally use that stinger. They’re just gonna fly off and kind of get lost in the environment. Is that why is that why bees or not bees, but was basically just sometimes fly out and Justine is because they, they just feel the need to just basically seem

Well, it’s, it’s a defense mechanism, so they’re, they’re very territorial. And you get too close. I have a friend at work who we, we don’t even have like a hornet’s nest anywhere near work. And there’s just this one hornet. Flew out nowhere and just stung ’em on the neck and just died. And I like, I, I know that like Nates are carnivores and that they are in invasive species that is attracted to Sweat Human, XL and all that.

And that bees are basically the, the exact opposite , but like, so it is, it’s just that bees aren’t known to just go on a suicide mission basically. I mean, they, they’re only going on a suicide mission if they feel like they’re threatened enough and they, they’re trying to protect the rest of the hive.

The wasps, again, wasps are generally a little more aggressive a little bit more territorial. So They’re, they’re gonna be more likely to just kind of sting you, you know, what we might consider for no reason. They probably have a good reason and they probably feel like you’re too close to something or you’re moving in a way that, you know, threatens them so they’re gonna defend themselves.

It’s not, there’s, there’s lots of yellow jackets that I’ll be out beekeeping and a yellow jacket will come by and land on my hand. And as long as I stay still and I don’t move crazy I can’t remember the last time that I’ve been stung by a yellow jacket that was just like right in my area.

Usually they’re more interested in the bees and trying to pick off a bee and take it with them. But yeah, if, usually, if, if an insect is like coming at you it’s not just cuz they’re, you know, they’re looking for something fun to do. It’s, there’s some reason that they’re coming at you, whether it’s defense or you know, you’re just.

In the wrong place and or in their way or something like that. So, but that’s something I also thank, I’ll also preface that with the the fact that I, my knowledge of wasps is very rudimentary. I, I know a lot more about bees. So take that with a grain of salt and you could definitely I’m sure Google could also give you some good input on on that type of question.

Okay. I, I was, I was just asking like about bees, cuz I, like, I’ve always seen bees, like they’re awesome. I’ve never like really known like the general life of a bee, you know, all that I knew was that they just collect honey and all that and it, you can’t, like, you can’t overlook an insect basically, cuz every insect has its own role that ties into one another.

So, Absolutely. Yep. They all have their, their place and they’re all here for a reason. So except giant Asian Hornets. Nope. Them. Yeah. Well, , you know, we humans are kind of at fault for moving them around and, and causing issues like that. Well, a lot of times in the environment, you know, we are the ones that are, are making the waves and, and causing issues.

So it’s what we do best.

[00:45:16] Conclusion

So I think with that, what we’re gonna wrap up the, the night thank you all for coming on and all the questions and kind of getting through this first one with me. Hopefully next time we’ll have a little bit better luck with the streaming to Facebook and we’ll have some more folks coming in there and asking questions and going from there.

So we will be back here on the third Thursday of February, which I have. On what that date is, that will be the 16th. So hopefully everybody has a good Valentine’s Day and you’ll come back and we’ll talk more about bees and beekeeping and all of that. And yeah. Thanks again Nick. Thanks very much. This was great. Absolutely. I appreciate you jumping on. Have a good one. Yeah, have a great night. Take care.