San Francisco Rec & Park Helping To Bring Back Backyard Bees
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- News of record numbers of bees dying off in North America has in part led to a movement where residents are learning to raise bees in their own backyards and San Francisco is no exception.
The city's Recreation and Parks department is teaming with Planet Bee Foundation to host a workshop, hoping people will help revitalize the bee population.
Bill Tamazuki, an urban beekeeper, is teaching wanna-be beekeepers how to get things going in their backyards. From the Community Garden next to Golden Gate Park, he doles out facts like there being 40,000 bees in the hive, but only one queen.
His own beehive, a wooden box contains bees, honey and the potential for stings, but he says raising backyard bees is one way to contribute amid the sustained die-offs of honeybees nationwide.
"We're saving a bee, one bee at a time. We can do this and everyone can do their part," he said. "It's really important that we do this in an urban environment. We want to go back to what our grandparents did and what our forbearers did. Years ago they all had beehives, they all had victory gardens."
The students gain a lot from his seminar. "Bees are awesome. They're the coolest pollinators," said Eloise LaBrae one of the beehive students. "We've got another 40,000 to add to the communal pot."
They also learn how not to get stung.
"I get stung all the time and that's okay. I don't mind getting stung from the neck down. If I get stung from the neck up, it's really horrible," Tamazuki said.