With the increase in urban beekeeping one of the things I get asked about a lot as President of the Omaha Bee Club is "What is different between beekeeping in the city vs beekeeping in the country?"
Urban beekeeping is indeed increasing and it's exciting and full of potential. At the same time, it persents problems that don't exist or aren't pressented the same way in country beekeeping.
Urban beekeeping requires us to think more about our neighbors and the neighborhood we have our bees in. Country beekeepers might not have neighbors within a half mile to a mile or even further from them.
The first rule of urban beekeeping, I tell people, is to bee a good neighbor. This means, don't let your beekeeping become someone else's problem.
Make sure to provide a good water source for your bees so that they don't take over your neighbors swimming pools or bird baths.
Your bees will swarm. Plan on it. Try to prevent it if you feel you can or must and be prepared to set out strategically placed bait hives to hopefully catch any swarms that get away. Your neighbors might think it's cool and wonderful that you're keeping bees, but they don't want your swarms moving into their eaves, roofs, walls and sheds or garages.
Some people have an irrational or ignorant fear of bees. While the idea of a 6 foot tall, 250 pound construction worker being afraid of some little bees might amuse you or even annoy you, remember that in "normal" society, beekeepers are the weird people. Try to keep in mind that these people can be your greatest ally or they can be the biggest thorn in your side. Try to educate them on how your bees are pollinating their gardens, fruit trees and ornamental flowers. This gives them bigger and more fruits, vegetables and blooms. Maybe drop a small jar of honey on them once a year, let them get them hooked on the good stuff. Whatever you do, don't antagonize your neighbors (at least, not unnecessarily). You, whether you like it or not, are representing all other beekeepers, why make it harder for the rest of us?
Keep your bees happy. Now we as beekeepers know that some colonies are more grumpy than others, especially as people get closer to the hive. Keeping our bees more docile by not unnecessarily riling them up and paying attention to the bees environment by keeping certain predators like skunks, racoons and others away so as not to get them aggressive all the time. This will help in not having people complain that you have "mean" bees.
In times of dearth, when the temperatures and weather conditions keep flowers from blooming and not much is available in terms of forage, you can put out sugar syrup feeders (try to keep them more than 75 feet away from the hives to prevent robbing). By putting syrup out for them in your own yard, you can minimize how much they go out to investigate neighbors trash and picnics. Some beekeepers will use in hive frame feeders at these times to help keep bees in food stores during a dearth. Keep in mind that if you use outdoor feeder pails with sugar syrup during these times, you will likely get a lot of other visitors to the pails as well like Yellow Jackets and Wasps.
To be a happy urban beekeeper means keeping your neighbors happy or at least tolerant. You can go a long way by beeing a good neighbor.
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