Urban Beekeeping, Philly Style

Bees collect pollen and nectar from trees, bushes, flowers and shrubs, return it to the hive and industriously produce honey.  In taking what they need to survive, bees don’t hurt or damage anything.  To the contrary, they make the world better by pollinating nearly all of the plants other animals need to eat.  

Natural beekeeper Ross Conrad, gave a recent workshop to about 100 members of the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild and surrounding guilds.  His goal is to “spread the gospel of organic beekeeping”.  Why organic?

Farming in the U.S. has changed radically in recent decades.  Small family farms growing a diversity of food have given way to huge industrial farms where thousands of acres of corn or soybeans are grown.  A wide range of chemicals are used in the farming operations which, not surprisingly, have been devastating to bee populations.

Many commercial beekeepers truck their hives to orchards and fields thousands of miles from home to serve as pollinators for the crops.  The mysterious disappearance of all the worker bees from many hives at once has been named CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) and has threatened not only the life of bees but severely limited the essential pollination of the food we eat.

One solution to CCD is urban beekeeping which, perhaps unexpectedly, is healthier for the bees than being in the countryside where chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are so prevalent.  Research has shown that bees in the city are less exposed than in the country.  They do well on blossoming tree-lined streets and the diversity of plants throughout the city.

Two of the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild board members live in Chestnut Hill.  Guild treasurer, Matt Feldman, said that “CCD has reinvented beekeeping.  Cities are the new farms.  People want local food and are excited about growing and buying from farmers in the city.”

The Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild has 60 members, all of whom either have hives already or are in the planning stages of becoming urban beekeepers.  Members of the Guild can buy equipment as a group helping to defray costs.  They can also take advantage of the support of more experienced beekeepers in the Guild, attend talks and workshops on various aspects of beekeeping, and use the Guild’s honey extractor.

The standard beehive for the past 150 years is the movable frame hive designed here in Philadelphia by Lorenzo Langstroth who is called the Father of American Beekeeping.  An older version, the topbar hive, is gaining in popularity among urban beekeepers.

A beginning beekeeper can get set up easily.  What’s needed to set up a Langstroth hive is the woodenware including hive bodies or supers which hold about 10 frames per super, beeswax foundation for the bees to draw and fill, a bottom board and a top cover.  Additional equipment includes a smoker to calm the bees when working with them, a hive tool to remove frames, and a bee veil to protect the beekeeper from possible stings.

Bees are generally peaceful creatures and beekeeping can be a fun and rewarding experience.  Bees produce: 

•honey which may be appropriately named “liquid gold” 

•pollen which can greatly decrease allergic reactions to local substances

•propolis, bee glue or resin which the bees gather from tree sap, and which is a powerful anti-bacterial medicine

•royal jelly which is fed to larvae and the queen, and which is considered by many to be a “super food” for humans

•beeswax which is used as a carrier in salves and ointments and to make candles

•bee venom which is used to alleviate illnesses such as arthritis

Our food production depends on bees for pollination.  Observing a colony of bees is a rewarding experience.  Their noble way of living utterly in balance with nature provides an invitation to humans to reduce our impact on the environment in which we live.  Conrad explained the imperative to return to producing a vast diversity of food sources, eliminating chemicals from our lives so we can “be good stewards of this incredible planet.”