Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Beekeeping
h
15
h
in the Backyard
It's one of the fastest-growing city homesteading trends in the nation—city beekeeping. The year
beekeeping was legalized in New York City, the local beekeeping club had more than 200 mem-
bers. Beekeepers have been banding together to change restrictive legislation with good success in
recent years.
Thankfully, the trend toward self-sufficiency is being supported by local regulations recently with
more and more cities loosening restrictions. Some cities are highly supportive, such as Chicago with
its rooftop beehives on its city hall building. One of the best resources for finding out the legalities
of your particular city or county is to check with your state apiarist. Go to bit.ly/BYFBeeStates for
the contact information for your state.
Getting to Know the Bee World
Beekeeping comes with its own lingo that you'll want to become familiar with. Here are some
common terms you should know:
/
Apiarist
—A beekeeper.
/
Apiary
—The beeyard where the beehives are kept.
/
Balling the queen
—An aggressive behavior by worker bees who crowd around and attack a
queen they perceive as foreign.
/
Beeswax
—The glandular excretion honey bees produce naturally and use to build
honeycombs for raising young, storing pollen, and of course holding honey.
/
Brood
—The baby bees, as eggs, larvae, and pupae stages.
/
Brood chamber
or
brood nest
—The portion of the hive where brood is raised.
/
Cappings
—The tops of the capped honeycomb cells. Both brood and honey can be capped.
/
Cell
—The individual, single hexagon cup within the honeycomb.
/
Colony
or
hive
—A group of bees that live together in a single hive unit.
/
Drone
—The male honey bee.
