FarmTina

Backwards Beekeeping in Brooklyn: FREE!

I contributed my design skills (in the flyer below) to help promote the free Backwards Beekeeping event coming up on July 9 and 10 in Brooklyn. This is going to be such a neat weekend of lectures, conversations, and of course, hands-on beekeeping for all! No need to register or buy tickets, just drop in to learn about bees for one day or all weekend.

 

Bonus Material: Buying Bees Through The Mail

After reading Tim the beekeeper's interview this week, everyone wanted to know: what is the story of buying mailorder bees? Here's what Tim told me...

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Bees came into my life via a 4 A.M. call from the local post office on a school night.

"Mr. ONeal?"

"Huh?"

"Mr. ONeal, we have several, uh, boxes of, erm... bees here."

"Bees? OH! They came already? That's exciting!"

"Uh... yes sir, it sure is. Since you're up, do you think that you could come and pick them up? The bees... the bees are attracting other bees."

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

Our phone was loud, so my parents were already awake. We rushed to put on clothes, jumped in our shitty Dodge Caravan and booked it to the Post Office.

I had never even been into the back of the Post Office, and any other time I would have been terribly curious about the sorting machinery and other mechanical contraptions hiding in the dark and murky depths of the sorting room, but I... I was on a mission. Bees.

They really were attracting more bees! On the outside of each crate a 5 or 10 bees were crawling, communing with their trapped brethren, but a quick brush of our hand dislodged them and sent them flying, to the dismay of the locals. We picked up our bees and walked out of the Post Office like saviours, the postal workers all breathing sighs of relief.

I called in sick to school and got to work.

-Tim O'Neal

A Beekeeper in Brooklyn

When I visited Montreal a few weeks ago, I noticed immediately that the city, which is full of gardens and public planted spaces, had a booming bee population. But I was surprised to see that so many people were swatting at the bees as if they were pests. I thought it was common knowledge that a bee only stings when provoked! Swatting at a bee is just as stupid as walking up to a coyote and throwing rocks at it. If the bee is minding his own business, just leave the little dude alone.

Bees play a HUGE role in the agricultural system. Without honeybees to pollinate our plants, our tomato plants and corn stalks and bean vines would not produce any food. That's why the mysterious death of so many bees in the last 4 years is such a scary phenomenon: less bees in the world ultimately means a lot less food.

Up until March of 2010, keeping bees in New York City was actually illegal. Bees were seen as a danger to the community, especially in a city where buildings are so close together that your neighbor's beehive would essentially be your beehive. But after years of dealing with the dwindling bee population, and the support of Michelle Obama installing a beehive at The White House, the laws have changed and beekeeping is now in full swing in NYC!

I met Tim O'Neal, a beekeper who raises bees just a few blocks away from FarmTina in Brooklyn- I like to think that it's his bees who have been pollinating my plants! Tim answered all of my questions about beekeeping in the city, and he even teaches a class on the subject at Brooklyn Brainery. Registration is still open if you'd like to sign up- classes start September 29th.

Tim's partner in crime Philippe and their rooftop apiary

FarmTina: The first question I think everyone wants to know... WHY?! Why beekeeping? And why do it in a place like Brooklyn?

Turnips Are Not Rutabagas!

If I could cut my turnip bed in half, I'd see something like this: happy little turnip roots forming underneath the soil. That's TURNIPS, not RUTABAGAS. There is a difference...