Buy!

Sorry! The 2009 harvest is gone and the bees are clustered in their hive for the winter. Check back in July 2010 for a fresh stock of amazingly flavorful honey! Sign up for the email list to be notified of new harvests.

Honey will also be available for purchase from the Brooklyn Standard Deli inGreenpoint, BK if you're in the neighborhood.

See you in July!!

Rare, Beautiful, Local.

Truly local honey can be difficult to come by in the Five Boroughs. We are proud to offer this elusive treat to honey lovers everywhere.

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About the honey

Our honey is foraged by 40,000+ hardworking Italian honeybees living in a single Langstroth hive on a Brooklyn rooftop. Honeybees have a 3-6 mile radius, so they can collect their pollen and nectar from as far as Central Park! In the area there's a wide assortment of plants and trees in bloom; early Spring honey can differ from late-season honey not only in color but also in flavor. Early Spring honey is typically a chartreuse color with a very distinctive, minty taste in part due to the abundance of Linden trees in bloom. It's been described as light but very sweet and herbal with some maltiness and spice in the finish. This isn't a commercial or high-volume hive: you'll be buying 1 of maybe 100 pieces of comb cut from this hive this year.

For Spring 2010 we will be adding only 2 more hives (one Langstroth and one Top Bar) to increase our harvest without overwhelming the native pollinator population. This brings our apiary size to only 3 hives so supply is limited. Get in touch early to reserve a piece of comb or a jar of extracted honey!

All orders will be shipped within 3 days of order via USPS. Prices will be determined at harvest time.

Tell City Council to act on the bill that would legalize beekeeping!

Beekeeping is a lot of things, but it's not unsafe or dangerous when done by a well-trained and knowledgeable beekeeper. Unfortunately, beekeeping is illegal in New York City, though it's recently been legalized in many other large cities worldwide. Greenpoint City Councilman David Yassky has introduced a bill to City Council to overturn the existing health code which makes beekeeping illegal. If passed, the Yassky bill would override the health code and thereby make beekeeping in NYC once again legal. City Council Health Committee Chair Joel Rivera MUST schedule and convene a public hearing on the bill for it to pass. Urge Joel Rivera to announce the date of the public hearing a.s.a.p!

Press and photos

Photos by Eric Tourneret, Chris Hondros, and Neil Despres.

Chow.com article. Hive Mind.

Food Curated video. The Beekeeper and her backyard flock of chickens.

National Geographic video. Illegal Bees Live the High Life in New York City.

ABC Nightline video. The Dangers of City Bee Keeping.

The Brooklyn Ink video + article. Busy Bees in Brooklyn - Masked Vigilantes Defy City Health Codes.

The Greepoint Gazette article. Greenpoint is the Bees' Knees.

Contact

Follow @BKHomesteader on Twitter

Join BK Society of Urban Homesteaders on Facebook

Email the beekeeper with any press or purchasing inquiries.