Urban Beekeeping and the Power of the Bee
Publication Year: 2013
Published by: NYU Press
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Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
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1. Catching the Buzz: Introduction
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As long-term New York City residents, neither of us would consider ourselves to be huge animal lovers or nature enthusiasts. We go on occasional hikes or camping trips to escape the city, but there is always something strangely comforting about driving back into the metropolis and feeling the energy of the city—the architecture, the noises, and the...
2. Buzzing for Bees: From Model Insect to Urban Beekeeping
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There are approximately 230 different species of bees living in the greater New York metropolitan area.1 As the city swarms with human activity, these bees quietly pollinate fruits, vegetables, plants, and wildflowers, playing an integral part in the local urban ecology.2 Bees have always lived throughout the five boroughs of New York with or without...
3. Saving the Bees: Colony Collapse Disorder and the Greening of the Bee
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Chances are that you have heard something about the bees’ plight and the ominous phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Beginning around 2006, CCD has been reported and documented extensively in the American media, reaching wide-ranging audiences and igniting an ecopolitical buzz around the honeybee. The story of CCD has been...
4. Being with Bees: Intimate Engagements between Humans and Insects
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Worker bees can live from four to nine months during the winter, but the average life span of a worker bee in summer ranges only six to eight weeks. Aside from the queen, who may live to be several years old, bees’ lives are fairly abbreviated when compared to other species. Elephants and certain parrots live up to seventy years, and...
5. Entangling with Bees: Sex and Gender
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As you might expect, the walls of Sunflower Academy in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, are covered with letters, numbers, shapes, and colors arranged in a slightly frenzied yet organized manner. Once you’ve entered and turned to face the cubbyholes, you are met by smiling, cheerful yellow and black bees that adorn the walls, with the date and days of...
6. Breeding Good Citizens: All-American Insects
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In spring 2011 in New York City, tens of thousands of bees collectively decided to vacate their hives in search of a more amenable place to live. Flying together in mutable bunches that can resemble a revolving insect tornado, swarms of bees ended up at a BP gas station in Brooklyn, a yellow barrier on the Lower East Side, and a mailbox in Little Italy (just...
7. Deploying Bees: The Work of Busy Bees
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Arriving at Rockaway Beach in Queens at precisely the same time, we waved and exchanged beaming smiles. Quickening our steps along the boardwalk, we are filled with the excitement of urban researchers out of their normal gritty habitat. We are on a break from the “field” of rooftops, postage-stamp-sized backyards, cement-enclosed...
8. Becoming Bee Centered: Beyond Buzz
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We entered the field with the desire to understand our fellow urbanites in their yearning to “connect with nature” through gardening, chickens, bees, window boxes, community-supported agriculture, and metropolitan farmers’ markets. In sociology speak, beekeeping was a “doable project.” We established our entrée with a diverse community of beekeepers...
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About the Authors
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Page Count: 256
Publication Year: 2013