New York Relaxation of Bee Ban

by Tonybees
(Queens NY)

Hey Bee Guy,

Well, since the lift of the bee ban in the city obviously I have seen an increase in swarming.

This is a good thing for some of my vacant hives. However, after doing this for over thirty years, you have to look at the whole picture. Swarming as we know occurs for various reasons, queen failure, (supersede), congestion, over manipulation etc.

The majority of the swarms I'm retrieving, the bees look as though they came from feral hives, meaning the bodies of the bees are large, normal in size, first year first generation. Makes you wonder, when you're picking up average three pounds of bees, it's safe to say they came from a domesticated hive.

This tells me that most of your rooftop beekeepers go to a class and say "I can do this!", buy equipment (whatever the instructor recommended) put it on the roof and walked away without even having a clue as to what's going on in that box.

I guarantee maybe two out of ten rotated their hives, I can't even guess as to how many even opened their hives and checked for supersedure cells, swarm cells, abundance of drones, a red flag that the queen is failing and getting ready to swarm, etc.

It upsets me because you have your Beekeepers, then you have your 'wannabees' who brag to the unknowing at wine and cheese parties. This isn't croquet or Westminster dog shows my friend, these are living beneficial endangered creatures that must be cared for.

Pick up books from Dadant, Delaplane, Root, ABC, XYZ, read, learn, speak to experienced beekeepers who've been there and done that, and not only one or two, talk to ten that's ten different experiences on the same subject. Then you draw the happy medium.

I had a "beekeeper" come to me on a job one day in downtown Brooklyn and ask if I knew the strain of bees I was about to retrieve, thirty feet above me, I looked at him and politely told not until I get up there will I know. So he, to impress his wife or girlfriend, said to me from here looks like apis melifera melifera, I looked at him, straight face and responded "excellent guess my friend".

However the German black bee for some reason (at the time I'd been doing it for 15 years for the Department) I have NOT retrieved a swarm of black bees below the Bronx! To this day, every swarm I've retrieved has been Italian or Italian/German mix. I love the guys who try to impress you with the nomenclatures of an M-16 rifle or a Remington 700 BDL rifle. You want to impress me, show me what you can do with your nomenclature at 500 yards on paper, then I'll bee impressed, otherwise, save it for the wine and cheese parties.

Thanks Tony

It's great when you meet an expert. ('ex' a has been - 'spurt' a drip under pressure)

Maybe you should ask them to lend you a hand. ;-)

The Bee Guy