According to a recent Associated Press article, Urban Bee Keeping is the Latest Buzz , many cities are encouraging urban dwellers to have backyard and rooftop beehives. Bees are dropping to critically low levels, and it's suspected that this is due in part to pesticides used in agriculture. Cities, having fewer pesticides, can provide healthy habitat for honeybees. In return, these pollinators help keep flowers blooming throughout cities. Houston, San Francisco and Chicago all have organizations to promote it. (Visit the article for these URL's).

While there are beekeepers in New York City, even a Beekeepers Meet-up, officially, honeybees are classified as "wild and ferocious animals" along with lions, ferrets and alligators.

I'm guessing that biologists didn't make that classification. Probably someone down at the DMV. In fact, I met a guy at the Brooklyn Flea a few weeks ago who didn't like butterflies. While at the Natural History Museum butterfly exhibition, some landed on him and it freaked him out.

For those not terrified of benign wildlife, the beekeeping trend dovetails nicely with the urban fruit and vegetable gardening trend. Many people are growing their own, in part due to escalating food prices. According to the news from Wall Street yesterday, prices for oil continued to climb, and so those food prices are going to keep going up.

Urban gardeners plant edible flowers that attract bees--like borage and lavender, along with ornamental bee and bird friendly plants, along with their lettuces and vegetables. The bees will help pollinate your garden, and you can help the bees.