What’s The Buzz?
Just A Year Since Ban Is Lifted, Boro Bee Population Is Swarming
By Jason Banrey
Before bringing his honey bee hive to Astoria, Ralph Gaeta accepted his hobby may cause a stir.
The tiny critters carried a negative stigma among his neighbors. He had trouble finding space to place his hive. But after a little bit of some sweet convincing, the neighbors seemed to change their minds.
 |
| Ralph Gaeta shows off one of his three hives. |
“As a steward of bees, I made it my duty to give my neighbors a taste of my hive’s honey,” Gaeta said. “It shows them the positive side of the little lives that honey bees lead.”
Now, Gatea counts himself among many who, with a sweet spoonful of honey, strive to change the perceptions of people fearful of the bumbling bug one person at a time.
For more than a year, Queens has been buzzing. After a citywide ban on beekeeping was lifted by the Dept. of Health last year, honey bee hives have spread throughout the metropolitan area, taking a once-hidden hobby out of the shadows and into the backyards of borough homes and city rooftops.
A Historic Buzz
Since its settling in 1683 and way before 1898, when the modern era of New York City was ushered in, Queens was considered by some to be the birthplace of horticulture. Sprawling with fields of farmland as well as unsettled acres full of wildlife, the county experienced a boom in agriculture.
Although honey bees are not native to the Western Hemisphere, they have come to play a role within the nation’s agriculture industry. Historical records show that colonies of honey bees were shipped from England to the colonies of North America.
 |
| Busy borough bees can produce hundreds of pounds of honey annually. |
In the 18th century, “vegetable truck farms and the number of large greenhouses from flower nurseries pointed to a thriving bee population,” said Bob Singleton, President of the Greater Astoria Historical Society. “In view of the vital importance of horticulture in Queens, beekeeping was not only present but must have been thriving.”
Another fact which points to the insect’s prominence within the borough came in 1873, when the Common Council of Long Island City adopted its Coat of Arms, incorporating various enterprises represented within the area. Within the design, located within the center of the crest, were two beehives.
Another fact which points to the insect’s prominence within the borough came in 1873, when the Common Council of Long Island City adopted its Coat of Arms, incorporating various enterprises represented within the area. Within the design, located within the center of the crest, were two beehives.
Home On The Grange
Today, Long Island City continues to carry on that beekeeping tradition. One institution that has made bees a cornerstone of its work is the Brooklyn Grange Farm, a commercial organic farm atop a roof of an industrial building located at 37-18 Northern Blvd.
Although the flagship farm was established in Brooklyn, it has been thriving in Queens, producing an abundance of both vegetables and honey for city residents and local businesses. Not only do the bees fulfill their purpose of pollinating the 40,000-square-foot farm, they also make their way throughout the area’s neighborhoods, helping play an essential role in local ecosystems which include gardens, cemeteries as well as parks.
“Honey bees can go as far as they have to,” Chase Emmons, chief beekeeper and director of business development at the Brooklyn Grange, said of the insect’s ability to pollinate distances farther than their immediate reach around the hive. “Technically, they can go within a seven-mile radius.”
Currently, the grange hosts four hives. Although one harvest has already yielded 175 pounds worth of honey this season alone, as of press time, the Grange was expecting approximately an additional 150 pounds more of the golden nectar, which would be bottled and sold at neighborhood markets throughout the city, making the locally-produced honey available to borough residents.
Fighting City Hall
Despite the progress in harvesting honey, just a year ago beekeeping was an illegal operation in the City of New York. Once categorized among a diverse group of animals including grizzly bears and condors, the honey bee was banned within the city limits, allowing the Dept. of Health to levy fines of between $200 and $2,000 to apiarists found in violation of harboring a hive.
In an effort to lift the ill-conceived inclusion of the honey bee ban within the Health Dept.’s classification of “wild animals,” beekeepers banded together.
One man who became a vocal proponent of bringing beekeeping back was Andrew Coté. As a founding member of the New York City Beekeepers Association, Coté along with Just Food, a leading local farming advocacy group, approached the city agency for a reversal in classification.
Initially, the City was against the proposal, but eventually opened up to hearing out the requests of urban beekeepers.
“The Health Department bent over backwards to make beekeeping legal,” said Coté of the beekeepers’ patient group effort to push for the change, which was announced in March 2010. “They wanted to do it safely and prudently, which was understandable.”
Where Hives Thrive
Queens beekeepers have jumped on the bandwagon, bringing scads of beehives to the borough.
After the ban was lifted, Ruth Harrigan of Douglaston went out and took advantage of the opportunity. For her, having a hive is not just about harvesting honey but about educating others who have a negative perception about the buzz of a bee.
 |
Ruth Harrigan smokes the honey bees before handling her hives. |
“Just by looking into a beehive you could learn so much,” Harrigan said. “It is such a tight knit society with so much cooperation. They all know what to do. It is easy to see their perseverance, hard work and love for the whole community. It is a lesson everyone can learn from.”
Currently, Harrigan has four hives of her own and has integrated her four children into the process of extracting honey, which she sells publicly at festivals and markets within the borough.
For Gaeta, the interaction with his honey bee hives is therapeutic. Tending to the tiny ecosystem each week, he gets lost in the bees’ buzz which, mesmerizes his senses.
“When you become a bee guy there’s something special about the relationship you share with each hive,” Gaeta said. “I wouldn’t know what to do if I did have that interaction. It’s a special bond.”
After four years of beekeeping out in Long Island and upstate New York, he jumped at the opportunity of bringing his hives into the borough he has always called home.
“I felt I was outside of the beekeeping culture,” said Gaeta of the hours he spent traveling back and forth to his hives when beekeeping was banned. “It’s all changed since last year. Now I am proud to say I am a beekeeper.”
The Bee’s Knees
In September, in celebration of the city’s first year of beekeeping, Queens hosted the first-ever Honey Festival. Swarming a stretch of the Rockaways’ boardwalk, the festivities drew more than 1,000 visitors and offered extraction demonstrations, honey inspired edible creations, and an overflowing amount of the city’s beekeepers’ honey.
Back to becoming a burgeoning hobby, beekeeping has returned from near obscurity, making the city’s greenest borough a humble host. With 31 community gardens, a plethora of parks, plazas, and open spaces Queens looks has again become the home of the honeybee.
“I think this is one of the better places to keep bees in the city, and I can’t imagine a better foraging ground than it,” said Coté, who helps oversee more than 300 city beekeepers. “I’ve seen Queens become an ideal place to keep bees again.”
Reach Reporter Jason Banrey at jbanrey@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 128.