Beekeeping on Urban Roots, city agenda

By Michael Hargrave and Shayna McKie
BengalNews Reporters

  Beekeeping on the West Side is going forward as the Common Council considers its legality.

  “So far there’s been a couple meetings (about beekeeping),” said Patti Jablonski-Dopkin, general manager at Urban Roots on Rhode Island Street. “But, no resolution has been passed.”

Catherine Herrick talks about beekeeping at Urban Roots:

  Honeybees play a vital role in pollinating flowers and fruit trees, and some businesses on the West Side, such as Urban Roots, are seeking to improve their urban farming yield by managing their own hives.

  “We have a hive now, it is empty,” said Jablonski-Dopkin. “It’s not warm enough yet.”

  “Urban Roots has tried to keep bees at its gardening center before, but the hive was not successful,” said Jablonski-Dopkin.

 At the moment, the city does not have anything on the books dealing with bees directly. The only reference to bees in any way is as insects, and any insect infestation is considered illegal within the city.

  As the agenda moves forward, the Common Council is considering proposals that would restrict people to keeping up to two small hives. As well as where those hives could be located on a property.

  Concerns with keeping bees near people are that bees do sting, and some people are highly allergic to those stings. Other concerns could be that bees are insects, and other health concerns arise from insects getting on food.

  Rick Thompson, secretary for the Western New York Honey Producers Association, said that honeybees are not inherently aggressive, but that they do present a certain amount of danger to people.

  “If you are walking in grass or clover, you could easily step on them,” said Thompson. “Then they would attack you.”

 Thompson, a 30-year beekeeper, said that the main food source for honeybees comes from flowers. Unless those food sources are in short supply, honeybees don’t usually bother people.

  “Honeybees are mainly after pollen and nectar,” said Thompson. “They aren’t like wasps, they won’t go after meat.”

  Thompson, who lives on a 2-acre plot of land on Grand Island, keeps two hives of his own, and doesn’t like to keep them near his own home, or other people,  in part because he because he wants to limit his liability. 

  “If somebody (in the neighborhood) gets stung, it was your bee,” said Thompson.

  Catherine Herrick, a 25-year beekeeper and board member at Urban Roots, keeps a small hive on her roof. The West Side resident   is one of a handful of Buffalo residents who keeps bees within the city.

  Herrick said her neighbors are understanding of her beekeeping and have told her that they have begun to notice their gardens flourishing.

 Herrick will be leading a class on beekeeping at Urban Roots on April 21.  She hopes to be able to show the people attending, her own hive. Edited by Elaundress Ballard