city bees interview

City Bees
R
obert MacKimmie is making the most
of San Fansisco’s ever blooming landscape
and its wealth of plant diversity by setting
up and caring for bee hives on roof tops and
in peoples yards.
After a day of examining Robert
carefully working with one of his
bee hives on a rooftop balcony
in San Fransisco we sat down at
the The Beanery coffee shop near
the Inner Sunset Farmers’ Market
to discuss his career as an urban
farmer and his love for the
community.
Photo by: Anna Buss
Interview with Robert Mackimmie,
by: Anna Buss.
What is so great about bees?
Everything about bees is
total goodness. Bees pollinate 1/3
of what we eat. Every food that has
color is bee pollinated. Bees also
gather pollen, collect propolis for
use in the hive, make beeswax, and
of course honey. Bees consume lots
of honey and when we help them
to be healthy and prosperous, they
generate enough extra to share with
the community. I always put the
bees first, and never overharvest
their diligent work.
did a bit of volunteer work with
Spencer Marshall, helping him with
his hives. Once I was able to provide
him with city honey I joined him
in selling honey at his stand in the
Ferry Plaza Market. One day at the
market, Eric the apple guy suggested
that I get my own Agricultural
Certificate, so I did.
I remained very serious
about bees from my first hive, but
always kept a real job. A dozen
years after starting, when the Great
Recession crashed upon us, local
food was becoming more of an
important focus. In 2009, the new
Inner Sunset Farmers’ Market was
starting up at the perfect time. It
was the perfect location which
mutually benefits both the local
community and farmers. At the
point people were really focused on
what they needed most in life: food,
water, shelter, and community.
How did you get into this field of
work?
I took a class and eventally
How does the community play a role
in your City Bees operation and vice
versa?
The community makes this
operation happen. Much of my
honey comes from hives that I have
placed in the backyards, decks or
roofs of customers that I have met
at the market.
Does the locality of the honey make
a difference?
I go by the testimonies from
my customers. Here is a great one:
“ I gave my son a teaspoon of the
Inner Sunset honey per day, and
within a week his allergies were
completely gone.”
So yes, it makes a huge difference. Honey includes pollens
from the trees and flowers that
cause the allergies. Using it is
reminiscent of inoculating the body
with a vaccine. At least that’s the
experience that my customers bring
back to me when they come for
the next batch. During the winter,
people were dosing themselves with
honey to get through their colds.
People want to have hives in their
backyards once they realize that it
will help them with allergies, and
improve their overall health.
A common interaction with my
customers goes something like this:
Customer: “ Instead of 17th at
Lincoln, I’ll wait for the 15th at
Judah”
Robert: “Are you looking for the
East or West side of 15th Avenue?”
You can’t get much more local than
that!
Having such localized
honey helps to foster a connection
between these urbanites and their
local ecology. People tend to think
more about spraying herbicides,
fungicides and pesticides on their
plants once they realize everything
is connected, and that their yard
may become part of the food chain,
part of what they put on a spoon,
and into their mouth.
and particulates in the air can’t
contamnate the honey. The pollen
is created in the plant, and the bees
get the nectar through an extraction
process, which means there is little
to no exposure between the nectar
and outside environment. The bees
might experience some
contamination if they are feeding
on crops that use systemic
pesticides, such as Neonicitinoids.
Corn and soy seeds are treated with
these chemicals to ward off pests.
The Neonicitinoids come back to
the hive in the pollen, because that
is a product of the plant.
How does urban beekeeping differ
from rural bee keeping?
• There are always plants
blooming in the city, so bees gather nectar almost year round.
• There is remarkable plant
diversity throughout the city which allows for endless
variations of completely unique honey.
grew up surrounded by 10 acres of
orange groves, so I was always
“in” nature, with an awareness of
crops and seasons. I like to say, “I
grew up with one foot on the farm,
one foot in the city.” Now I farm the
city. “Taste the View,” is one of my
admonitions.
What is it like to be a farmer in this
modern day society?
I feel very fortunate to be a farmer
for so many reasons. It allows me to
fully experience a strong
interdependent relationship with
nature every single day.
Photo by: Anna Buss
“Everything about bees is total goodness. Bees pollinate 1/3 of
what we eat. Every food that has color is bee pollinated.”
• Again, it provides effective
allergy relief because of the
localized plant pollens in honey
• Large sprayed mono crops in
rural areas leave nothing for
bees to forage on – it’s a food
desert for them.
Does pollution from the city air
affect the honey?
Not at all. Pollution
It doesn’t kill the bees immediately,
but it is suspected that the
non-fatal low doses ends up
impacting the offspring, and
eventually the navigational abilities
of the foraging bees.
Do you have a history with
agriculture?
Some of my great-grandparents
were farmers and my retired grand
father was a ‘gentleman farmer’ - I
It is very fulfilling to provide the
community with food which will
influence their health with very
positive benefits.
I truly believe that the
recent economic hardship has
helped to shape people’s view of our
food system, and has helped people
to appreciate farming’s vitally
important role in society.
Where do you keep your hives in the
city?
The majority of my hives are in
other people’s backyards. Often,
there may only be room for one or
a few hives per location in the city,
but this helps to spread the
pollination around and avoids
overwhelming particular forage
landscapes. I keep eight colonies
on the roof of Bi-Rite Market in the
Mission, and have installed four
hives on the roof of the new Bi-Rite
Market on Divisidero. Those are
among my few sizable apiaries. I
also have hives at a Cole Valley
elementary school, which is great
because I get the chance to teach
the kids about bees, and where
honey comes from. Bees are now
on their school crest and have
become an integral part of the
school’s identity, far beyond being
just a part of their science
curriculum. It’s so important that
kids become connected to nature
and our more natural food systems.
Are there complications or challenges
when keeping bees in the city?
Just like the byproduct of
horses in New York City around
1900, one of the major bee irritants
is little yellow dots, which is bee
poop. People assume that it would
be bee stings, but that’s never an
issue. When the bees leave the hive
on their way to mate or find nectar,
they have waited until they get
outside the hive and sometimes
little dots land on people’s car,
which is nothing more than
digested
The real challenge of
keeping bees successfully is
“Varroa destructor,” the parsitic
Varroa mite, originally from Asia,
and similar to a flea or tick. They
reproduce in the bee brood and
weaken the early development of
the bee by sucking their hemlymph,
their bee blood. A multitude of
bacterial diseases and rapidly
evolving viruses can cause deformed
wing virus (DWV) and other
devastating bee diseases, ultimately
collapsing most bee colonies one
by one. 98% of urban bee losses are
caused by mite infestations.
With the recent popularity
of beekeeping, it is overwhelmingly
important that amateur
beekeepers use proper organic
methods to control mite infestations.
Many new beekeepers want to keep
bees “naturally,” but often don’t
realize the extent to which
overdevelopment and globalization
have eliminated any natural
ecosystems that the bees once had.
Humans have impacted what is
required to keep bees sustainable,
and there is a lot that we must do to
be supportive of the bee ecosystem.
Any “do-nothing” technique offers
no control over the mite populations,
which are present in all bee colonies.
That “do-nothing” mindset is a
major problem.
The brutal biological facts
are that mite populations grow
exponentially as the year
progresses, until eventually the
mites outnumber the bees, causing
gruesome and catastrophic collapses
minimally tended hives most
always create epidemic levels of
rampant disease which can be
spread far and wide when bees
forage. As a hive collapses,
deformed and infected young bees
are thrown out of the hive,
lowering the population further, at
which point opportunistic
stronger colonies are scouting for
easy sources of food. The
compromised hive’s location, once
discovered, is communicated to the
stronger hive via the bee “Waggle
Dance,” the two-part mathematical
description of distance and
direction to the food source. A
raiding party is assembled and they
invade the weak colony, bringing
back all pillaged honey. Along with
the honey comes the bloodthirsty
Varroa mites. If the beekeeper isn’t
regularly monitoring hives for mite
population levels, the stronger hive
can collapse within a month or two.
It’s very sad, financially devastating,
and totally avoidable.
The very real lesson for all
beekeepers is that, unlike the
contained experience of having a
fish aquarium in the living room,
one’s beekeeping practices in
backyard beehives can cause
severe and deadly impact to other
bee populations within five miles,
in each direction. If people don’t
take control of their hives, it affects
everyone’s bees. Most beekeepers
don’t like the message of required
responsibility, so I have changed my
tactics to simply expecting that
everyone else will be collapsing
“In 2009, the new Inner Sunset Farmers’ Market was starting up
at the perfect time. It was the perfect location which mutually
benefits both the local community and farmers.”
pollen. Anyone outside the city
would laugh that this is an issue.
of individual bee colonies. Instead
of providing a benefit to bees,
from mites, and I need to constantly
protect my hives from incoming
parasites. Thus far, I have been
proven correct. I get my mite levels
very low and then experience wave
after wave of incoming mites. A
“sugar shake” test, with 300 bees in
a Mason Jar with some
powdered sugar knocks all of the
mites loose, and I can count how
many mites on hitchhiking on the
300 bees. 3 mites per 300 bees is a
1% infestation. If there are 10 mites
per 300 bees, I’m headed for serious
trouble. If there are 25 mites per
300 bees, more than 8%, that hive
will begin a major collapse in about
her eggs, and not enough empty
comb for the workers to store their
nectar. Swarms are almost always a
result of poor beekeeper practices.
What are some of your favorite
honeys?
•The Mission District’s Date Palm
Blossom - a subtle but rich flavor,
like an autumn fruit, which the
bees gather from the miles of
Canary Island Date Palms along
Dolores Street in the Mission
District. (This is the Bi-Rite Market
Rooftop honey from 18th Street.)
about honey?
•Honey lasts forever. King Tut has
honey in his tomb. He didn’t eat
much of it, but it was as tasty as the
day it was put there.
•Alexander the Great was killed
on one of his military campaigns.
His body was preserved in honey
until his sarcophagus was returned
home.
•Honey will crystalize - this is a
sign that it is real and good. The
liquid honey on grocery store
shelves has been heated to more
“San Francisco is THE most unique honey city in the world. We have a
one-of-a-kind 7x7 mile peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water,
with hills and valleys to make up endless microclimates - and the entire
ecosystem is severely influenced by the thick layer of marine fog which
brings chill and moisture in the summertime.”
a month, and if there are 50 mites
per 300 bees, not uncommon in
late summer and early fall, the hive
will be completely dead in about
3 weeks. It’s completely avoidable
through attentive organic hive
management, and that means much
more than “being natural and doing
nothing.”
When mite levels are kept
low, the bees are able to be the
magical, intelligent beings that they
are, able to express their joy in
being diligent, doing the
extraordinary work of pollination
while gathering nectar, pollen,
propolis, creating beeswax and
curing honey. Everything bees do
is positive and remarkable. Bees are
the intersection of being systemic
biological creatures, who happen
to be intelligent wildlife doing what
that they want to, not always as
the beekeeper would prefer. And
bee swarms? Totally caused by the
beekeeper who has not provided
enough space for the queen to lay
than 150 degrees and has been
ultra-filteredto remove all pollens.
•Ord Street in the Castro District
Why remove all the good stuff?
was immediately a legend, being
Honey has more enzymes than
light in color, with remarkably
any other food, but temperatures
distinctive flavors, and very deep
over 105 degrees kill those magical
satisfaction to the taste buds. The
host moved to a new neighborhood, enzymes. Hive temperature is 96
degrees. My goal is to never take
so the bees had to depart also.
honey above that temperature zone.
•Golden Gate Park neighborhoods
•Royal Jelly - contains amino acids
- many locations within a block or
and proteins. It chemically evolves
two of Golden Gate Park end up
labelled with titles such as “Bliss” or the queen bees’ reproductive
“Butterscotch” - the local Eucalyptus system, while leaving all of the
female worker bee reproductive
groves provide a stunning
systems immature and never able to
background flavor for all city
function fully. Royal Jelly is
honeys. Very creamy and buttery.
•Specific neighborhoods often have remarkable to taste, but better used
little sunny locations which provide in making new bees.
•Bee Pollen is one of the super
a paradise, enhancing bee health
and vigor. Twin Peaks with its great foods groups - one could
supposedly live on bee pollen and
view acts as a launching pad for
foragers. The Mission District with water. Vitamins, minerals, amino
acids, fatty acids, high in protein,
its Banana Belt of warmth, when
and has enzymes that any medical
other parts of the city are deep in
student would be amazed by.
down parkas, always tastes more
floral.
•Honey is anti-bacterial,
anti-microbial, cured by the bees to
around 15% moisture, it is actually
Any other random interesting facts
too dry for bacteria to grow in.
Many old wives’ tales about the
medical benefits of honey have
been proven in recent years Australia actually uses honey as
medicine, package and approved
by their medical community. It is
especially good for use with burn
victims to keep
infections minimized, and flesh
wounds. Scrape your leg mountain
biking - “Sweet!”
•The most amazing honey fact:
It tastes great!
•
Bottom photo by: Greg Zeroun
Top photos by:
Anna Buss