Her honey started keeping bees, now Mile End’s abuzz: From Big Apple to Paris, apiculture is taking off

Five years ago, when my beekeeping boyfriend informed me that he was putting a beehive on the roof, I wasn’t sure about living next to 30,000 buzzing, stinging insects in the middle of Mile End.

As it turned out, the bees thrived on city living, and none of them even crossed paths with me.

The bees on our roof found so much nectar in the trees and gardens of the neighbourhood that by the end of the summer the hive was heavy with honey.

But getting a 45-pound box of honey down from the roof of a triplex wasn’t easy. So, for a while, resident beekeeper Francis Miquet installed the hive on our balcony which, I have to say, was a little too close for comfort.

This summer, he moved all three of his hives to a more secluded spot behind an artist’s studio.

Read more:

Honey laundering: The sour side of nature’s golden sweetener

Am I on the wrong train, or is everybody else?

Bredan Cormier wrote an interesting article in Canadian Architect this month titled “Secrets of the Beehive”, while I’m not sure what it has to do with architecture (other than a misleading opening paragraph) it is an interesting article and goes (slightly) beyond the scope of the honeybee which is seemingly the only angle most popular media is currently taking.

Of significance to me is the quote by Italian architect Stefano Boeri who talks about “non-anthropocentric urban ethics” which considers satisfying the needs of all life forms instead of focusing on human needs (something designers tend to do-and often tend to do poorly). I suppose it’s a revelation that what is good for flora and fauna in the city, forest or country might be good for people too? While this has surely been acknowledged to some degree, I am not sure that it manifests in design, and still the tone of the article suggest “why bees” because we humans are dependent on them for our survival.

Architects & designers, God complex much?

“Bees have emerged in the design world as one of the first species to be considered in this new urban ethic, confronting designers with two essential questions – “What exactly are the life needs of bees and how can we design with those needs in mind?”

Secrets of the Beehive from Canadian Architect

When you’re an Architect apparently EVERYTHING in the natural and built world becomes a metaphor for Architecture?

…regardless, it’s a fairly interesting article…my work is done…mdp over.

Secrets of the Beehive
When designing for bees in the public realm, one must consider a variety of issues such as ethics, practicalities and broader ecological considerations.

The Mystery of the Red Bees of Red Hook

from the New York times

Cerise Mayo expected better of her bees. She had raised them right, given them all the best opportunities — acres of urban farmland strewn with fruits and vegetables, a bounty of natural nectar and pollen. Blinded by devotion, she assumed they shared her values: a fidelity to the land, to food sources free of high-fructose corn syrup and artificial food coloring.
Cerise Mayo, a beekeeper in Red Hook and Governors Island, found that her wandering bees were returning with red coloring, probably acquired at the factory of a company that produces maraschino cherries.
And then this. Her bees, the ones she had been raising in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and on Governors Island since May, started coming home to their hives looking suspicious. Of course, it was the foragers — the adventurers, the wild waggle dancers, the social networkers incessantly buzzing about their business — who were showing up with mysterious stripes of color. Where there should have been a touch of gentle amber showing through the membrane of their honey stomachs was instead a garish bright red. The honeycombs, too, were an alarming shade of Robitussin.

Help Support Green Roofs in New York, One Square Foot at a Time

Green roofs, one square foot at a time

Eve Mosher—the brain behind the High Water Line project, which marked with blue chalk the post-climate change high tide line of New York—has a new project, called Seeding the City.

Initially, Seeding the City involved placing a small square of green on the roofs of New York buildings, creating a mini-green roof network to help support the idea of a city full of green roofs and get people used to having and caring for them.

But now that network of small green squares has spawned genuine interest, and now Seeding the City has launched a Kickstarter project to pay for workshops and installations of full green roofs next summer. They only have about 30 hours left. Help them out, won’t you?

How the city hurts your brain – The Boston Globe

How the city hurts your brain – The Boston Globe.

NHPR.org – The Aching Brains of Urban Dwellers

NHPR.org – The Aching Brains of Urban Dwellers.

How to integrate nature into urban life not simply create it as a refuge…

A tower for bats

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microhoods detroit

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