Bronx River Bees: Working for You and Me
Sunday, October 15th, 2006
On the table at the West Farmer’s Market at Drew Gardens, you will find small plastic bears filled with honey made by our own Bronx River bees. They live on Franklin Avenue in hives kept by Roger Repohl in the Genesis Park Community Garden next to St. Augustine church and in the churchyard.
I was curious about these bees, so I visited Roger on one of the last warm days of October. The bees were buzzing around busily, bringing in some last minute nectar before the winter closes in. Once the weather gets cold, bees stay inside, clustering together and vibrating to keep each other warm.
Roger told me there are about 60,000 bees in each of his three hives. Pretty scary, huh? But not to worry. They are not going to come after you. Honey bees are only interested in flowers, not in people. They will not bother you unless you step on them when they are sipping nectar from clover or if you get too near their hive. Do not mistake them for those yellow and black wasps that ruin your picnic by settling on your hamburger or soda can. Those are yellow jackets, not honey bees, which are brown and black and have a wider abdomen than wasps.
I got to taste some honey produced by these bees. They roam around in a three-mile radius from their home, gathering nectar from flowering trees in the spring, clover in the summer, and wild flowers like goldenrod and asters in the fall. The honey made in each season has a slightly different flavor. The spring honey has a light minty taste. The summer version tasted to me like clover honey, while the fall harvest seemed richer but not as sweet. I liked the fall honey the best.
I worried a bit about exploiting these good workers who pollinate our gardens and trees, giving us honey and wax, but Roger assured me that bees make lots more than they need. He leaves plenty of honey (about 100 pounds) in each hive for the bees to live on over the winter. Although people used to steal honey by destroying hives and even killing bees (making the surviving bees pretty angry), modern methods are gentler. Roger showed me wooden trays he inserts into the hives that the bees obligingly fill up with honey. He claims they aren’t much disturbed when he opens the hives and removes them.
People have been going after honey for as long as we know about. Pictures of bee hives have been found in Spanish caves dating back 8,000 years. And honey never spoils. If you happened to find some that was 8,000 years old, it would still be good to eat. Archeologists once found a honey pot from ancient Egypt containing crystallized but still edible honey.
Roger’s honey is definitely a treat. He keeps bees for the satisfaction it gives him to learn about these fascinating creatures, and we get to enjoy the product. For more information you can reach Roger by e-mail at repohl@att.net.
–Peggy Ray