Saturday, July 16, 2011

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.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

too much government

Archie said...

Why do we need European bees that have been known to breed with African bees ? Don't we have enough f_ing immigrants and escaped stowaways in Queens ? They are not native and this cant be a good thing.
Little Neck and Bayside have enough problems with Asian Woolly Adelgid crawlers offing all the hemlocks.

Photo : https://www.nysdot.gov/divisions/engineering/design/landscape/trees/repository/hemlock%20branch%20copy.jpg

Anonymous said...

Are they suggesting that the bees can't fly wherever they have to find water?

Anonymous said...

I wish Bloomberg would get stung by a swarm of bees............

Mayor Mike said...

I wish Bloomberg would get stung by a swarm of bees............

Oh honey!

S-w-e-e-t!

Mayor Mike said...

By the way, it's the honey that makes my hands sticky. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Now turn around while I zip up!!!

Anonymous said...

too much government

Agreed! It's none of their bee's wax!!!

Mayor Mike said...

Did someone say bee's tax???

Anonymous said...

bloomberg et al *are* the `swarm of bees'