Backyard Beekeeping a Growing Hobby

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.--  Thirteen years ago a colony of bees swarmed at Margaret Vondermeeden’s house, one of the outdoor educators of Yorktown’s Hilltop Hanover Farm. The bees had swarmed because their colony had become too large to keep in the hive built for them by their beekeeper. During a swarm they bring their new queen, and find a new home.

The beekeeper who had raised the colony came to Vondermeeden’s house, collected the bees with his hand from the tree in and after about 10 minutes of work, handed the colony to Vondermeeden. “He literally took his hands and put them in a box,” said Vondermeeden. "Then he handed them to me and said ‘Here, this is yours.’ And I did lose them the first winter, so I wasn’t a beekeeper overnight.”

Croton and Cortlandt have seen an increase in the number of backyard beekeepers in the last year, even the Croton Community Garden considered putting a hive near their garden at Silver Lake. The exact number of beehives in the area is almost impossible to come by, since the New York State Agriculture and Markets Division slashed the budget for apiary inspections last year, but the anecdotal evidence is clear.

“I saw a big jump in beekeeping in the last year, after the movie,” says Vodermeeden, referring to the movie “Queen of the Sun,” which was recently shown in the Croton Free Library. The large amounts of press and documentaries have brought beekeeping into the foreground. New York City lifted its ban on urban beekeeping in 2010, and the White House even introduced beehives to their property in 2009.

A local bee expert, long-time beekeeper and former New York State Apiary Inspector, John Bernard, has introduced multiple members of the community to beekeeping, and continues to be a resource for fellow beekeepers. Croton and Cortlandt beekeepers are quick to note that Bernard is generous with his time and knowledge about beekeeping.

According to Bernard, colony collapse and global warming have made beekeeping a hot topic, but also because we have the camera technology “to watch the bees,” something that was impossible ten years ago. A Croton beekeeping group has even banded together loosely, to start a blog about their varying adventures in beekeeping. Young people have become more interested in beekeeping, according to Vondermeeden, who had a student from Croton-Harmon High School’s internship program learn about bees with her this year.

“Twenty years ago,” said Michael Grant, owner of the Black Cow and beekeeper, “I bought books on beekeeping, I always wanted to do it.” Bernard came in for three years, each year mentioning that he ordered bees in January for the spring, until one year Grant finally said, “I ordered two colonies, I ordered my equipment, and I set them up on the Biddle’s property,” he said of a Mount Airy resident’s backyard.  

“The first year,” Grant said he extracted “50 pounds of honey. It just kept oozing out of the extractor.” Colony collapse has been beekeeping’s most recent challenge. “It’s always been a really fragile hobby,” said Grant. Colony collapse is more generally associated with large scale commercial beekeepers, who could lose many colonies in one season, getting bees through the winter is a more common challenge for backyard beekeepers.

Vondermeeden, who leads hands-on demonstrations of beekeeping said, “One important thing I always tell them, [referring to her classes,] the most experienced beekeeper, even after 40 years, will tell you they haven’t learned all there is to learn.”

“We need the honey bees,” said Vondermeeden. "So by becoming a beekeeper, on any scale, is giving back to nature. What that means to me is that it’s an assurance your people will survive.”

For more resources of backyard beekeeping check out the Croton Beekeeping Blog, contact Margaret Vondermeeden through Hilltop Hanover Farms or check out Betterbee Inc.

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