Urban Apiaries & the Rise of Backyard Beekeeping

(Image: Pursuitist via Untapped Cities; urban apiary at NYC’s Waldorf Astoria)

As Urban Bees writes on the homepage of its website: “Bees do well in the city due to the variety of plants in the city ’s parks, railway sidings and tree-lined roads and urban dwellers enjoy their delicious honey. Since honeybees are gentle creatures which eat only pollen and nectar they can, with careful planning and preparation, live side by side with you and your neighbours.”

So it’s perhaps not surprising that urban apiaries have taken off in a number of major cities across the world, in an exciting trend that ranges from the hobbyist’s backyard beekeeping to larger commercial initiatives, like the apiary on the roof of New York’s famous Waldorf Astoria hotel on Park Avenue.

(Image: Ricks)

The past decade has witnessed a worrying decline in bee stocks across the western world, due to a range of potential factors such as poor weather, disease, parasites and agricultural practices including the use of certain pesticides.

Cities, meanwhile, have been shown to provide a multitude of ideal bee-friendly habitats, from parks and gardens to railway embankments, canal towpaths and hundreds of forsaken acres reclaimed by nature. As we’ve seen many times on Urban Ghosts, those forsaken spaces of the urban realm – overgrown, abandoned cemeteries being a prime example – are thriving havens of wildlife both great and small.

(Image: Img)

Though beekeeping has historically been banned in many cities, particularly across North America, consumers’ drive for all things local and the consequent rise of the local food movementhave seen the prohibition of urban apiaries overturned in many jurisdictions in recent years.

As a result, so-called backyard beekeeping has gained momentum worldwide, particularly in Europe, North America and South Africa. Numbers of beekeepers in London reportedly rose by 200 per cent between 2008 and 2013, with an estimated 3,200 urban apiaries throughout England’s capital.

(Image: Louise Docker)

In New York, beekeeping was prohibited before 2010, despite a healthy number of backyard apiaries nevertheless providing their owners with honey. But in the five years since the ban was lifted, apiaries have become popular additions to rooftops throughout New York City, and their numbers look set to increase further.

The practice is also well established in Chicago, Montreal, Vancouver and Johannesburg, the latter boasting over six million trees, making South Africa’s largest city an ideal location for urban beekeeping that comfortably trumps the honey yield per hive of rural areas.

(Image: Jon Sullivan)

Additionally, though urban apiaries are required by law to be registered and regulated in most of the cities where they thrive, it’s estimated that a great number of colonies go unreported.

In a 2006 report, the BBC claimed that city bees were healthier than rural insects: “Bees reared in cities are healthier and more productive than their country cousins”, wrote the corporation, citing a study by the French beekeepers’ association Unaf.

(Image: Waugsberg)

“Urban bees enjoy higher temperatures and a wider variety of plant life for pollination, while avoiding ill-effects of pesticides,” the report continued.

Just like the craft ale movement, urban beekeeping would seem to be a win win, a practice that’s great for bees, those who keep them and consumers determined to buy locally. The knock on effect, of course, is significant environmental and economic benefits for cities, as bees pollinate awide variety of plants and local shops and restaurants proudly serve up their honey.