By Ilene Rosen
Special to DNAinfo
LOWER MANHATTAN — Things may get sweeter for Manhattan’s homegrown honey supply this week, as the city’s Health Department could take another step towards lifting a decade-old ban against urban beekeeping.
The department criminalized keeping honeybees within city limits in 1999, categorizing them alongside venomous snakes and elephants. Underground beekeepers currently risk fines of up to $2,000 per hive.
But a petition drive and support from the local food movement have generated buzz for the law to be overturned. The Health Department will hold a public hearing Wednesday on whether to free the bees.
"All bees were banned as dangerous in the original Health Code ... because of their ability to sting people," the department said in a statement. Following the petition, "the Health Department looked into urban beekeeping and found that responsible urban beekeeping does not pose a public health issue."
The hearing comes on the heels of a DOH vote in December to approve the removal of bees from the dangerous animal list pending this week’s hearing and a second vote next month.
A City Council push to change the law was derailed when former Councilman David Yassky, who introduced a bee-backing bill, lost his seat.
Now the beekeepers are counting on the Health Department.
The DOH is “enlightened enough to recognize that it was perhaps hastily pushed through in 1999 that honeybees be banned after centuries of being legal in New York City,” said Andrew Cote, a fourth-generation beekeeper. “And it’s to their credit that they took the time and have the wherewithal to recognize that this is an issue for many New Yorkers.”
Cote is among the underground beekeepers who haven steps to conceal their hives.
“One East Village artist camouflaged the hive by painting it to look exactly like a chimney,” Cote´ said. “You cannot recognize it in a photograph as a beehive unless you are told, and even then you must do a double-take because it was so well done.”
But he said the city would do well to let bees back out into the open, as more bees mean better pollination for local plants.
“Pollination is not just what ends up on our table,” Cote said. “It’s all the trees and bushes everywhere. We need those trees and flowers to help purify the air in the city.”
Plus, Cote said, it just tastes good.
“We get the most amazing honey from the New York City beehives.” Cote said. "This medley of flowers create a light, minty honey sometimes, [and] a very citrusy honey another time, with a really phenomenal bouquet.”
