NYC Lifts Ban on Honeybee Hives; Keepers Rejoice

(March 17) -- New York City just got a little sweeter.

The city's Board of Health voted unanimously Tuesday to end the moratorium on beekeeping, giving locavores and urban agriculture activists a reason to celebrate. With the new ruling, New York joins other metropolises like Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, all of which previously voted to allow hives of Apis mellifera, the common honeybee.

Previous laws defined nonaggressive honeybees as dangerous wild animals, akin to wasps and hornets, and the fine for having a hive in New York City was up to $2,000.

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Before officials changed the law, people faced fines of up to $2,000 for keeping honeybees in New York City.

While the city occasionally did fine the underground honey collectors, the laws did little to deter an army of guerrilla apiarists from operating illegally. With Tuesday's vote, the former outlaws can come out of hiding. City beekeepers were elated.

"We're ecstatic," says Amy Blankstein of Just Food, an organization that worked to lift the ban. "We think this is a huge step in the right direction for the city in terms of its efforts to bring a greener, healthy and more sustainable environment in the city."

When the law changes, a month after it's published in the city record, beekeepers will have to register with the city but won't be licensed. There reportedly are about 600 beekeepers in the city.

Bee support is gaining, and even the Obamas keep a colony in the White House's organic garden. Troy Fore of the American Beekeeping Federation points out that with the rise in urban agriculture in vacant lots, backyards and rooftops, cities will need bees to pollinate all those additional flowering plants.

Now that the bees have moved above ground, some curious honey consumers may consider getting into production, but beekeepers warn that the enterprise is not always profitable.

"Keeping bees is a labor of love," filmmaker and caretaker of 30,000 bees Dana Cohen told the New York Daily News. "Let's face it, it's not going to make you a millionaire."

The world is not all bright for North American bees, however, as researchers still struggle with finding the cause of colony collapse disorder, a mysterious syndrome that has been eviscerating bee populations since it was first identified in 2006.