As a beekeeper in Los Angeles who sets up and maintains hives for other
people I see lots of settings for bee yards around here. This article has a
few laughable conclusions, for example, Gary says that harvesting less than
100 pounds of honey from a hive means you shouldn't be keeping bees?
Please! Tell that to my  clients who savor literally each drop and consider
it something like a healing manna from heaven. Urban honey from Los Angeles
retails easily for $15 per pound and more. Last year was the 3rd driest
year on record in Southern California and some people got NO honey. But
they keep their bees around anyway because they love them!

Why is it wrong to nurture a hive that produces less than 100 lbs? Clearly
the author has never seen a back yard enthusiast sitting in front of their
hive on a Saturday morning drinking their tea and watching the bees fly in
and out! That is one of the big reasons that people keep bees in cities;
the sight of the bees flying in the air and landing on the landing board
and blooms is a most meditative and relaxing comfort.

People in the LA area have abundant tree forage for bees such as the many
fruit trees, ceonothus (native) and eucalyptus, (which I consider to be our
main nectar source generally), and many homeowners with bees see them on
the ubiquitous succulents, english ivy, and rosemary. LA is surrounded by
wilderness areas too. But the knowledge that every neighbor within a couple
of miles is benefitting from the backyard hive keeps many LA hobbyists in
bees, even in a bad year. California has a lot of people in it who look for
ways to upgrade their ecological footprint and honeybees often fit the bill.

One error the article states, is that honeybees out-compete native bees for
the same forage and that's the cause of the decline of so many native bee
species. The truth is that many if not most native bees are plant-specific
in their foraging preference. Global warming is causing their specific
forage plant to move up to a higher elevation or latitude, but the native
bee cannot move up due to other environmental needs it has (such as nesting
sites or water sources). It's common to see popular confusion about native
bee decline vs honeybee decline, but I was surprised to see it coming from
a bee expert from UC Davis.

Ruth Askren
www.thehivetribe.com

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