City of Bees: Notes of an Urban Beekeeper • Hacker News Board

Re: City of Bees: Notes of an Urban Beekeeper

#11

Post by ct0 » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 1:39 PM UTC

krolchat wrote: post #9

Wouldn't the horrendous pollution up there poison the honey to the point of being, well, not very good for you? Same way as fruit and veggies grown on the side of a busy road aren't exactly fit for human consumption

Im unaware of any studies that look at toxin levels that specifically compare a city hive verses a rural hive. IMO the greater concern is the source of nectar, as bees will store any source of "nectar" even if its a couple drops of sugar from a soda can. I would be hard pressed to even consider it 100% honey as the original source could very well not be from organic sources.

Re: City of Bees: Notes of an Urban Beekeeper

#12

Post by ct0 » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

If you like problem solving and are content with learning as you go, bee keeping is one of the more fringe activities out there. Bee keeping used to be a very popular activity but has since fallen out of favor, most likely due to an effect of population density. Reach out to your local clubs. Be sure to hold onto you hats because its a wild ride and you are not the one driving!

Re: City of Bees: Notes of an Urban Beekeeper

#13

Post by ThomasBHickey » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 1:43 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #4

So my wife and I placed some lavender and other pollinators at the mailbox at our house. Fortunately it has grown well and now when I grab the mail every day there has to be around 20 bumble bees going around doing their thing. It’s cool to see. We have a garden but also try and plant pollinators and other types of plants too just to try and recreate a little bit of an ecosystem.

I've read that people that deliver mail don't appreciate the bees.

Re: City of Bees: Notes of an Urban Beekeeper

#14

Post by mrweasel » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

ct0 wrote: post #11

krolchat wrote: post #9

Wouldn't the horrendous pollution up there poison the honey to the point of being, well, not very good for you? Same way as fruit and veggies grown on the side of a busy road aren't exactly fit for human consumption

Im unaware of any studies that look at toxin levels that specifically compare a city hive verses a rural hive. IMO the greater concern is the source of nectar, as bees will store any source of "nectar" even if its a couple drops of sugar from a soda can. I would be hard pressed to even consider it 100% honey as the original source could very well not be from organic sources.

> I would be hard pressed to even consider it 100% honey as the original source could very well not be from organic sources.

Because English is weird, I'm not sure if you mean organic as in from plant/animal I would be hard pressed to even consider it 100% honey as the original source could very well not be from organic sources (yes, bees will make honey from animal sources, such as wood lice) or "not sprayed with pesticides".

In Denmark Chinese honey is mostly known as "fake honey" because it's made by bee, but from sugar water, and not nectar.

Organic honey, as in "not sprayed" is almost impossible to make in Denmark, as it requires a 3km radius from there hive, where no chemicals can be used. While in Sweden, as an example, it just has to be primarily organic, as in as long as no chemicals are used directly in front of the hive, you're allowed to label it "Organic".

Re: City of Bees: Notes of an Urban Beekeeper

#15

Post by ericmay » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 3:02 PM UTC

ThomasBHickey wrote: post #13

ericmay wrote: post #4

So my wife and I placed some lavender and other pollinators at the mailbox at our house. Fortunately it has grown well and now when I grab the mail every day there has to be around 20 bumble bees going around doing their thing. It’s cool to see. We have a garden but also try and plant pollinators and other types of plants too just to try and recreate a little bit of an ecosystem.

I've read that people that deliver mail don't appreciate the bees.

Yea maybe. The ones that are at our mailbox don't really bother anyone - they're just grabbing pollen. I grab my mail from the box everyday. Though one thing I didn't think about was someone potentially allergic to bees, but I'm not willing to accommodate everyone.

In the case of the mail I'd rather they didn't deliver anything anyway. It's just spam. Anyway...

Re: City of Bees: Notes of an Urban Beekeeper

#16

Post by lm28469 » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 11:00 AM UTC

sweetheart wrote: post #7

It always strikes me as odd when articles like this portray the individual working with animals as having, or wanting to have, some sort of closeness to nature, or reverence for the natural processes that support the life they seem in awe of. Because invariably, they then feel some sort of entitlement to interfere with the processes and steal from them. In this case it’s honey, but we do it to so many living things.…

If the metric for being nature friendly is "doesn't interact with nature" I have bad news for you. If being a bee keeper is a crime against nature I hope you don't drive a car, live in a man made structure or eat processed meat.

You seem to think Humans are some sort of entities living outside of the realm of "Nature", we've been working/using animals/plants for as long as human exists, hell, most other animals do it too.

Bees are "stealing" pollen from flowers to store it as food, we're "stealing" honey from bees to use it as food.

Someone harvesting his own honey from his hives certainly is closer to nature than someone buying honey (produced god knows where and in what conditions) in a supermarket.