Why Beekeeping in Cities May Be the Wave of the Future

Seems the Eureopean Community members have voted to ban certain pesticides because they are implicated in the striking bee die-off the world has seen in recent years. Bully for them!

No sooner had I digested that news than I heard Pierre Gingras on the Radio Canada morning show deplore the drop in the number of swallows.  At his place in a rural area across the river from Montreal he has yet to see one, even though in past years hundreds have nested on his property which he's made particularly swallow-friendly.

The reason? Possibly the lack of insects because of the use of pesticides, he says.

I have yet to see a swallow around here--and it seems to me they show up a little later than this--but I will keep my eyes open to check if this cityscape is any more friendly to the birds than the countryside.  Could be that it will be.  Pesticides are banned in Quebec for esthetic use, and beekeepers say that the pesiticide-free urban area have become fertile terrain for beekeeping.

The photo is of a fat bee I watch bumble around last fall.  The video is of collecting honey from a rooftop hive on topeof teh Queen Elizabeth Hotel if the heart of the city.