Getting a buzz on in the city
Ken Hays, president of the New Mexico Beekeepers Association, recently told the New Mexico Independent that Albuquerque is the best place in the state to produce honey because of its many flowers.
Turns out urban beekeeping is becoming a worldwide phenomenon, as Germany's leading newsmagazine Der Spiegel reports.
One urban beekeeper told the magazine the bees "have to fly out of here at a steep angle to avoid the buildings," but that they seem happy with city life, both because of the flora and the city's natural warmth.
Der Spiegel says Hamburg alone is home to at least 50 million bees from more than 2,100 bee colonies.
Hundreds of thousands of bees are constantly dashing through the backyards and courtyards of cities like Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich. The densely populated Ruhr region is now home to more bees than the surrounding countryside. Bees are at home on Berlin's balconies, rooftop terraces and hotel roofs.
Bees are also popping up in larger numbers in cities around the world. In London, beehives can be seen on the roof of the Bank of England -- honey from the London metropolitan area has even won the first prize at Britain's National Honey Show. And in Manhattan, "Sheriff Beekeeper" David Graves sells his Rooftop Magic Honey at a premium price.
The roof-top hive is a natural in New Mexico, with its many flat roofs. A beekeeper-in-the-making myself, I plan to put a home hive on my roof in the mountains east of Albuquerque to keep it out of the reach of bears.
Beekeeping classes are being taught to recruit more beekeepers and counteract the loss of bees to colony collapse disorder and to recruit young beekeepers as older ones retire, the German magazine reports.
In New Mexico, beekeeping classes are taught at Tesuque Pueblo, the Permaculture Institute and Ecoversity in Santa Fe and elsewhere for some of the same reasons.
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