As published in a Wall Street Journal article, beekeeping has been legalized in New York City!  What does this mean? People are allowed to keep tens of thousands of bees in their lawn or apartment with the authorization from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene with intention to harvest them for honey. Most people have no interest in owning so many bees, but some people do, called beekeepers, which keep bee hives and collect their honey to sell.  On May 15^th, a swarm of 30,000 bees escaped from a hive on a beekeeper’s balcony in Brooklyn and traveled down a local residential street.  They decided to gather high on a tree, to which an expert beekeeper, Andrew Coté, came to tame the herd.  He trapped the queen bee first then the rest of the bees followed.  Luckily, honey bees do not sting, and the bees could safely travel to another hive.  Andrew said the main reason for them to swarm is from over population of the hive.  When this happens the bee colony travels to find another hive, always following the queen.  A bee colony never goes back to the same hive so once they leave, the hive they will not return to the same area.    The neighbor’s opinions on the incident ranged from they thought it was an interesting site, to being appalled.  Not all bees are as friendly as honey bees, so make sure when you are outside, try and stay away from bees as much as possible.

If you have a bee problem or a hive on or near your house, feel free to contact us either by phone 800-479-2284 , email, live chat, facebook, twitter, or visit our website.  Want to know the difference between wasps and bees? See this other article

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Having a brain the size of a pinhead does not, however necessarily make you one. Scientists concluded this week that bees; yes, bees, have the ability to think and may also be intelligent enough to count. With a brain just one milligram small, this is somewhat an impressive feat for those little bugs.

While this may be good for bees, it may not be so beneficial to us humans. With a brain that has consciousness and the ability to think, it means that bees have more sensitivity and precision than we thought they did. This means that they can in fact control where their stinger is going. In comparison, a bee has just a million nerve cells. A human’s brain, on the other hand, has 85 billion nerve cells.

Many people, including scientists themselves, for as long as we can remember compared a bee to more of a “living robot” than an actual animal.