Buzz for beehives in New York City
This van contains over 2.4 million honeybees
which are sold to beekeepers in New York
Location: New York
(SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK CITY BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION AND FOUNDER OF ANDREW'S HONEY, ANDREW COTÉ, SAYING:"It's a nice hobby. It's a nice way to connect to nature in a city like this. It's fun. It's fun to work with the bees, you can connect to nature, it's therapeutic, it's almost meditative to work in the beehive."
Urban honeymakers keep the bees on high-rise rooftops or tiny gardens
New York legalized beekeeping in 2010
and has hundreds of registered hives
Source: NYC Department of Health
(SOUNDBITE) (English) BEEKEEPER AT LA FINCA DEL SUR COMMUNITY GARDEN IN THE BRONX, ALAN MARKOWITZ, SAYING:
"You need pollinators. A third of what you put in your mouth needs a pollinator. So it's important for pollinators to be prevalent in the environment. And in the city, believe it or not, bees do well because there's less pesticides generally. So it's better if you live in the country or live on a farm, which is where I'm from, I used to be a farmer, you have to fight the pesticides and the monoculture. Having a lot of variety is wonderful for bees. That's what they like, they like a varied diet."
