Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Beekeeping...in Brigham City?

It has recently come to my attention that some residents in Brigham City are interested in urban bee keeping and are working with the planning commission to clarify related city ordinances.


Obviously I am in favor of this, not because I am interested in keeping bees (I am not), but for the following reasons:
  1. Clarification of city ordinances reduces headaches with government and neighbors.
  2. Interest in being responsible for food production educates people about where their food comes from and how it impacts the land, animals or insects that produce it.
  3. Self Sufficiency.  Do NOT confuse this with "I will save money by doing it myself."  Economies of scale have been established and whether it is chickens or bees, you probably wont save money...BUT not relying on someone else and knowing what goes into YOUR food product can be incredibly satisfying.
  4. Bees are docile...especially when compared with the wasps and yellow jackets whose population has been exploding recently.  If bees compete with wasps and discourage them from being in our neighborhoods, I support that. :)
  5. Brigham city is full of gardeners and backyard fruit growers.  Pollination relies on these insects to spread the love so to speak and produce the fruits and vegetables that we love to eat.
I think bees need to be understood before strong opinions make uninformed decisions.  That statement is just as important to the person who wants to begin keeping bees as it is for anyone opposing it.  In a short amount of time one can easily pull up volumes of information that will help educate and inform.  Below is a small list I put together.

http://www.examiner.com/article/gardening-101-backyard-beekeeping
http://utahpests.usu.edu/bees/htm/honey-bees/
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865560975/Urban-beekeeping-feeling-the-sting-of-cities-rules.html?pg=all
http://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/urban-beekeeping-zmaz80jfzraw.aspx 

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