With the towering buildings of a city skyline in the distance honey bees fly around and perform their tasks with plants located in apartment gardens, parks and wealthy as well as poor city neighborhoods. When ready they return to their hives which are located within the city of Pittsburgh, PA. These honey bees didn’t seek out this city life but became a part of it with the help of an organization known as Burgh Bees.
The organization was started in 2006 by Alex and Meredith Grelli, Jennifer Wood and Robert Steffes. They are a group of very dedicated apiarists with a desire to bring the pleasure of bee keeping to the urban environment.
To date Burgh Bees has established several hives including four small apiaries in neighborhoods around the city and also one at the Pittsburgh Zoo. The small apiaries are referred to as “demonstration apiaries” as they offer students the opportunity to experience an intensive beekeeper training program sponsored by Burgh Bees.
Non-class members are offered the opportunity to view “open apiaries” each month. The bee hives will be opened for anyone interested in seeing what it is looks like. These hives also enable members of the community to get the hands-on experience of working with an actual hive without the need to maintain one of their own.
Many apiarists agree that an urban environment may actually be more beneficial to the health of honey bees than living in a rural environment. The reason is the wide variety of plant life found in a city. The rural environment tends to be restricted to specific types of plant life. When bees feed from a limited variety of plants they miss out on the diversity of amino acids and proteins an urban setting can provide them.
The efforts of Burgh Bees to increase interest and awareness of honey bees around the city seem to be meeting with success. At present many people have signed up for their year long class and the numbers of active Burgh Bee volunteers is in the hundreds. Many of their current class participants have expressed and interest in starting a hive of their own.
There are other organizations around the country helping to establish honey bee hives within cities. The increasing success and interest in honey bees occurring in the urban world could change the entire city landscape. In the future honey bee hives may become as common of a sight in many cities as squirrels and pigeons.
WEBSITE
http://burghbees.com/
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