Actually, I hope that people's budding interest in hobby beekeeping can help pick up the slack...
I was thinking the other day about the viability of a small business that would install apiaries in peoples back yards, and the hosts would get a share of the honey. The rest would be sold at at markets. A distributed system of bzzzzz. Eh? An article in the nytimes the other day inspired the idea - about how different communities are dropping prohibitions on urban beekeeping. Of course, this article appeared only a few days after another article about bees drinking maraschino cherry juice in Red Hook and producing red metallic-tasting honey.
Yeah, but living within 20 metres of a hive doesn't mean anything about risk of getting stung.
Bees are quite happy to fly miles to get their nectar. Most of the bees from our hive visibly flew straight up and away from our area. Since getting rid of the hive, our garden is still full of bees.
I was thinking the other day about the viability of a small business that would install apiaries in peoples back yards, and the hosts would get a share of the honey. The rest would be sold at at markets. A distributed system of bzzzzz. Eh? An article in the nytimes the other day inspired the idea - about how different communities are dropping prohibitions on urban beekeeping. Of course, this article appeared only a few days after another article about bees drinking maraschino cherry juice in Red Hook and producing red metallic-tasting honey.