Douglaston beekeeper stung by DOH

From the Times Ledger:

When the city’s Department of Health lifted a ban on beekeeping last year, John Bettingill was all set to start his own hive at his employer’s workshop tucked away on 233rd Place by Little Neck Bay.

Last month the property owner, TimesLedger cartoonist Tip Sempliner, received a DOH citation for not providing the hive with an adequate water supply.

A violation could have stung Sempliner for up to $2,000, but a DOH spokeswoman said the notice of violation was changed to a warning..

Bettingill said when he took a class with the New York Beekeepers Association two years ago, there were no regulations governing the practice in the city; everything he learned at the class focused on caring for his European honey bees, which he hoped would produce a tasty bounty. He ordered his supplies and started to build the wooden hive that now sits in the foliage behind the fence of Sempliner’s home.

The bee enthusiast registered the hive with the city in May of last year, and now he estimates he has about 50,000 bees churning out honey in the hive. With that size colony, he said, he could harvest about 150 pounds of the sweet stuff.