This spring in New York City, clumps of homeless bees have turned up, often in inconvenient public places, at nearly double the rate of past years. A warm winter followed by an early spring, experts say, has created optimal breeding conditions. That may have caught some beekeepers off guard, especially those who have taken up […]

This landscape of miniature mountains, researchers now report, acts like a surface of Velcro that pollinating bees can cling to. The feature is particularly useful when the wind starts blowing strongly. “The bee has claws on its feet, and it can lock into the gaps between the cells,” said Beverley Glover, a botanist at the […]

Michael HegedusThe car before the swarm: bees in the back of a beekeeper’s Mercedes on Tuesday afternoon. Shortly after this photo was taken, they escaped. Animals will get restless if left unattended in a sweltering parked car. If they can, they will escape. On Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn, a few thousand bees fled a Mercedes […]

Beekeeping in the city used to be a clandestine endeavor, with buzzing boxes hidden on balconies and in community gardens, rooftop residences, schools and even hotels. But the practice has been legal for the past two years. Here, Ralph Gaeta adds bees to his apiary in Astoria, Queens, in preparation for this year’s honey harvest.

The once-clandestine buzzing boxes on balconies and in community gardens, rooftop residences, schools and even hotels all over the city have been legal only for the past two years. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene puts the number of registered hives at 161 — up from 4 in April 2010 — […]

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Spring Time Tracking the season in a patch of Staten Island forest. Our weekly visit to Corson’s Brook Woods begins with an unusual find. At the edge of the forest we discover a writhing, pulsing mass of honey bees hanging off a white mulberry tree branch — a so-called swarm cluster. When a hive becomes […]

Spring Time Tracking the season in a patch of Staten Island forest. Trout lily has won the battle for the forest floor. Last Friday, its leaves filled every inch of our site in Corson’s Brook Woods. There was nowhere safe to step without leaving shoe-shaped indentations behind. This ubiquity is subtle in our main photograph. […]

In Thursday’s issue of the journal Science, two teams of researchers published studies suggesting that low levels of a common pesticide can have significant effects on bee colonies. One experiment, conducted by French researchers, indicates that the chemicals fog honeybee brains, making it harder for them to find their way home. The other study, by […]

In Thursday’s issue of the journal Science, two teams of researchers published studies suggesting that low levels of a common pesticide can have significant effects on bee colonies. One experiment, conducted by French researchers, indicates that the chemicals fog honeybee brains, making it harder for them to find their way home. The other study, by […]