The beginning of our beekeeping adventure!

 It takes time to warm up to the idea of keeping bees, but once you've been stung (only metaphorically), it develops into a passion. We heard somewhere along the way that about two years ago, it became legal to keep bees in New York City (check out this NYT article from March 2010). We thought this was a fantastic idea, with all the rooftop gardens and farms sprouting up all over the city, why not hives too!

Then one day we chanced upon the guys from the Georgetown Honeybee Company who have made it their business to promote urban beekeeping throughout the east coast from DC to Boston. So in February, we ordered a package of bees and some equipment from them. They of course recommended that we buy a book on beekeeping and learn about our future roles as beekeepers.

Eagerly, we set out to buy the book (The Backyard Beekeeper) and to do our homework. Simply reading the book heightened our sense of amazement and wonder about these tiny creatures who play such an important role in our lives. They not only provide us with delicious honey, but they also pollinate the plants and trees that produce so much of the food we eat. Did you know that bees can travel up to 3 miles (or maybe more) to forage for nectar and pollen? That a honeybee will visit between 50 and 100 flowers on each collection trip? Or that a hive of bees will fly 50,000 miles to collect 1 pound of honey? How about the fact that they fly at 15mph? (I could go on with incredible bee facts... so I will just infuse them into future posts.)

Along the way we learned from many wonderful beekeepers and associations willing to share their knowledge through blogs, websites and videos. There are a myriad of resources online and it was through these that we discovered the one day beginning beekeeping workshop offered by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County in Hamden, NY. At the training, on April 14, we learned more about all the basics of beekeeping, which gave us the confidence to face the next day's hive installation!





From our workshop, an experienced beekeeper teaching us about the bee dance, which we will talk about later... :)