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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
James Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 17 Apr 2020 18:06:05 -0400
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> Can you confirm the specific species of tree that produces the honey in
NYC?

There is no single dominant tree or bloom.
	
The Central Park Conservancy says that there are over 150 species of trees,
20,000 trees total, just in the park.
A good map is at http://centralparknature.com

The NYC Botanical Garden says that there are over 450 species of flowering
plants in Central Park.  They have a database, here:
https://www.nybg.org/science-project/flora-of-central-park/

Many of the species are not native to the area in the least.  Lots and lots
of exotics.
So, while I might send honey samples off to U Texas Austin for pollen
analysis, I think it would give them all aneurysms. 

So I can't say what the bees forage on, I can't even tell you the normal
bloom periods of all these different things.  This year, I supered up on Feb
4th and 5th, not because I thought I could catch the Maples blooming, but
because I was leaving the island for the relative safety of our place in NJ
so as to avoid the problems that you may have heard about with the virus. 

There is one Brooklyn neighborhood with clearly distinctive honey - Ft
Greene in Brooklyn has a good population of Lindens.  So, that honey always
tastes overwhelmingly of Linden, no matter what.  Everyone else is in the
same boat as me - too much variety to claim any single monofloral name.
About the only other monofloral one could produce here would be lavender, as
one could plant enough lavender on a single rooftop to flavor one's entire
crop.  But I don't like lavender honey that much.

> Also - how much of a honey harvest can you expect in Manhattan?

At least 75 lbs per hive - sometimes more.  It’s a weather-driven and
queen-failure limited variable.  I've yet to see a hive successfully mate a
queen in Manhattan, so the ongoing problems with premature queen failures
hit me harder than a beekeeper where mating is possible.

The total number of beekeepers dropped like a rock between 2013 and 2016, as
the bulk of the hipsters quit bees and took up craft beer brewing and
macramé.  So, I have "infinite forage", leaving weather and my own actions
as the only limiting factors. There never were many hives in Manhattan,
"roof access" means owning your own roof, or having friends who own roofs in
Manhattan.

I suppose if I didn't travel so much, I might have bigger harvests to brag
about, but we sell the bulk of the crop at Christmas Church fairs, so I just
try to make the profits from the Health Food stores underwrite all my costs,
as we pocket nothing from the church sales, of course., they keep the money.
It's part of my tithe.  I mostly break even, or make "beer money" profits.
(I also make an absolute monster annual "Paschal candle" for Easter, 3
inches diameter and over a foot long, as I married a Polish Catholic girl,
and she says that the bees on the Rectory roof have to "pay their rent".
Lucky for me, there are artists in the congregation with actual skills to
make the decorations and adornments, I just have to make a (bleached)
white-wax candle the size of an Javelin missile!)

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