Burgh Bees is one step closer to achieving its goal of founding a cooperative urban apiary.
The local beekeeping nonprofit has been granted a five-year lease for a block-long lot on Susquehanna Street in Homewood, across the street from the East End Brewing Company. The long-vacant lot cannot be developed in the traditional sense because of its shape (long and narrow) and its proximity to the East Busway, says Meredith Meyer Grelli with Burgh Bees. The property, however, is perfect for beekeeping, thanks to that fact that it's flat, gets lots of early morning sunshine the bees love, and is conveniently located for many Burgh Bees members.
Burgh Bees worked with the URA and the Mayor's office to secure the site. It will host about a dozen honey bee hives as well as a demonstration pollinator garden, and will serve as Burgh Bees' outdoor beekeeping classroom. The group will get the basic infrastructure in place in March 2010, and install the hives in early spring. Burgh Bees will be offering beekeeping training sessions at the Homewood site in spring and summer of 2010.
To turn the now-vacant space into a community asset, Burgh Bees has partnered with Homewood residents, Mayor Ravenstahl's Green Up Pittsburgh program and Penn State Cooperative Extension.
"We've always hoped to have a place to really call our own, a centralized location where we could put all the Burgh Bees hives, host classes and offer space to beekeepers who live in dense neighborhoods and can't beekeep at home," says Meyer Grelli. "This will allow Burgh Bees to continue to grow this next year."
Over the past year, Burgh Bees has established four demonstration apiaries--in Hazelwood, Mt. Washington and Braddock and at the Pittsburgh Zoo. These demonstration apiaries served as hands-on classrooms for the 35 aspiring beekeepers in Burgh Bees' first-year beekeeper training program.
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Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Meredith Meyer Grelli, Burgh Bees
Image courtesy of Burgh Bees