> but does contain a few knee-slappers

I haven't met Officer Planakis yet, but I was asked to come to 
the site the next day to be interviewed by one of the local NYC 
TV stations about the 400 or so stragglers left after his removal 
of the bulk of the colony.   No box with a pheromone lure was left 
to collect stragglers, which in my view is the mark of a rank amateur.

Another clue was that he wore a full bee suit on a hot day to
collect a very passive swarm on a brick wall.

I was fresh out of lures myself, as I've collected a number of
swarms this spring.  The mild winter was very good to the bees, 
it seems.

The local residents, some who were forced to walk within a few
feet of the mass of bees on the brick wall to get to their 
apartments, had the same question as the reporter - "Why are
the bees BACK?".  Despite Planakis being a police officer, there 
was apparently no attempt made to do any "public relations" 
and/or reassure the civilians that the bees were not a public 
safety issue.

I played nice for the TV camera, and simply stressed that the
bees were harmless, homeless bees that I expected would make 
their way back to the original colony from which they swarmed, 
but what I was thinking was "What a buffoon this guy was to 
make such a sloppy job of such an easy swarm to collect."

The David Graves fellow sold jelly and jam at one of the NYC
Farmers Market for years and then started beekeeping in western MA.  
He claims to have 12 hives at various sites around New York and 
the surrounding boroughs, and has even been filmed for TV carrying 
individual frames of comb down ladders, and across boards between 
rooftops, and installing package bees into brand-new-looking boxes.
  
Despite the small number of hives and the tedious comb-by-comb 
harvesting, he amazingly never runs out of "New York City Rooftop 
Honey" with brisk sales every weekend. I've never met anyone with 
only 12 hives who never ran out of honey, so I'm guessing that the 
bulk of this honey really comes down from MA in the trunk of his car, 
and that his labels are not very accurate as to the actual origin 
of the honey.

> However, nothing was said about urban versus farm bees.  Urban bees  
> MIGHT live shorter lives because of factors such as air pollution 
> (i.e., Atkins  smog studies) or a higher chance of becoming a smear 
> on the windshield of a  vehicle.

Urban bees tend to be "rooftop bees", flying above tree level to 
gather nectar that will mostly be gathered from trees.  More to 
the point, it is rare for NYC traffic to reach speeds at which bees 
would be in any danger.  I can rarely even get the Volvo out of 3rd 
gear until I am well outside the city.

There's also a surprising lack of pesticides used in parks and in
home gardens everyone is very concerned about staying organic and
non-toxic, regardless of cost.  Not at all like rural areas, where 
the co-ops carry some pretty nasty stuff, and are happy to sell it.  
Same thing in Europe, it seems:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4621184.stm

Also, the new low-sulfur diesel has made a big change for the better
in city air quality as compared to even a few years ago.  The views
have become much less hazy.  Best of all, the isolation is a good
thing from a disease and pest standpoint.

Overall, I'd guess that urban bees have shorter foraging sorties 
due to the wide variety of different trees and blooms in a small
area, and can be more "productive" than their rural counterparts.
Give me a few years, and I'll be able to say for sure.

I'd guess that fewer predators, isolation from the migratory routes,
and plantings being constantly replaced by skilled gardeners the
moment that blooms end would mean that an urban hive would live
a productive and healthy life.

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