Beekeeping Project Needs Support

Monday, February 07, 2011

There’s an awesome new project afoot in West Philadelphia - a community apiary and youth beekeeping program!  Daniel Duffy, who currently tends bees in partnership with The Woodlands Community Garden and UC Green, has developed a kickstarter website that offers membership in a Community Supported Apiary in return for funds to help launch this project.  From Duffy himself:

“I’ve been working with local beekeepers, farmers and UC Green to raise money for a community bee yard and the first urban apiary-to-table youth beekeeping project.  We’ve put out a web site, which you can see here.  Right now we’re raising money through Community Supported Apiary (CSA) shares and individual donations to set up hives at the Woodlands Cemetery in April.

Educators have started using beekeeping as an educational tool.  With 20% of Philadelphia youth out of work and school, our bee yard will provide a unique opportunity to help students develop widely-applicable jobs skills and entrepreneurial savvy.  Students are now applying for a program where they’ll use the apiary to raise bees and sell their honey at the farmers market.

But honeybees are primarily important because they pollinate a third of our food, and they’re dying off at an alarming rate.  Some estimates give the bees little more than 20 years to live in the US.  With so many commercial beekeepers backing out of the business because of economic necessity, there’s a void to be filled with new ideas and models.

There is a good reason to rely on individuals to fund this project.  It has the potential to get different communities involved.  And while we have a plan and the partnerships to help carry it out, it still helps to get lots of input in the project’s nascent stage.”

And if you really care about bee health, sign this petition to urge the EPA to ban the pesticide clothianidin that has been linked to Colony Collapse Disorder.