Attending a Bee Meeting

Yesterday, I schlept back early from the Jersey Shore on a gorgeous beach day so that I could go to a bee event. I know, it sounds absurd. But given the recent events and the current state of my hive, I felt that I needed to make some beekeeping friends. I tried to explain it like this: When you have a kid and there’s a problem, you ask your friends with kids for advice. I have a problem with my bees, so I feel like I need to make some beekeeping friends and see if they have any suggestions.

I found out about this event because I follow Brooklyn Homesteader and Borough Bees on twitter. Both Meg and Tim keep hives in Brooklyn and were speaking at the Eagle Street Rooftop Garden. I had never been to Greenpoint before or to the rooftop garden so I was pretty excited to go. It is as picturesque as it is on their website and a perfect day to be there.

Skyline view from the rooftop garden

I learned that the 6000 square foot green roof grows about a dozen crops including kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and peppers. They also have chickens and three beehives.

Peppers growing in the garden

There were plenty of people volunteering and visiting the garden. I was surprised at the number of non beekeepers there attending the event.

Kirk Anderson of Backwards Beekeeping was the guest speaker yesterday. The topic of the meeting was about keeping bees more organically, and not using chemicals or fancy equipment. After each panel member spoke, they opened the hives.

Kirk and Tim doing the inspection

We weren’t allowed to get close to the hives but they passed frames around for us to see.

Passing up the frames

Top bar hive frame with capped brood

I was able to ask my question about what to do about the small hive beetles but was told that the bees will take care of it. I don’t think this is true since my hive seems to be very weak. I did order beetle traps so hopefully I will be able to put them in this week.

The event was a good first step for me. I can be shy about speaking to people I don’t know so this the perfect way to get some information from local beekeepers. Next time, I am going to try to go to something where there are other active beekeepers so I pick their brains.