permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

America's only urban beekeeping store on rescuing honeybees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiqWPjSC-dA&feature=player_embedded

Bryon Waibel runs what he believes is the world's only urban beekeeping 
store. It's called  Her Majesty's Secret Beekeeper and Waibel, who uses 
the handle 006, does seem to believe that he/ the store/ urban 
beekeepers are serving a cause.
"It would not surprise me at all if the future of the honeybee itself is 
in urban beekeeping," he says, "It would not surprise me at all."

For those not familiar with the problem with bees, the threat is Colony 
Collapse Disorder: a phenomenon wherehoneybees worldwide are 
disappearing. No one knows the cause though some point to a combination 
of pests and environmental pathogens like pesticides and GM crops.
The secret of urban bees

Waibel thinks the solution could be urban bee hives and he's not alone. 
French beekeeper's association Unaf found that urban bees are up to four 
times as productive as their rural cousins because they have a wider 
variety of plant life for pollination and aren't exposed to pesticides 
like their country counterparts.

It seems the plight of the bees has politicized urban homesteaders to do 
their part. "Urban beekeeping I would say it's increased at least 3 or 4 
fold over the last 3 years." And he says this jump in beekeeping 
enthusiasm merged neatly with press coverage of Colony Collapse Disorder 
and increased public perception in the importance of honeybees.
Langstroth hives and mead-making goods

To arm all these newly recruited urban warriors, Her Majesty's Secret 
Beekeeper sells beekeeping supplies like protective suits, combs and 
hives, mostly Langstroth equipment ("The standard equipment in the 
United States... named after the Reverend Lorenzo Langstroth who used 
the discovery of beespace to invent this moveable frame hive.")

In this video, Waibel gives us a tour of the store's supplies (which 
include hyperlocal honey, beeswax soap and cosmetics and mead- (honey 
wine) making equipment. He also talks about how, to his surprise, his 
personal urban bee hives are doing better than those of his father in 
Michigan farm country.