Passage
High above the traffic, on the flat roof of a downtown apartment block, a beekeeper lifts the lid of a wooden hive. City dwellers rarely see the hives 1 themselves; only the jars of honey that appear, each autumn, at the corner market. Ten years ago a keeper hoping to place a hive on a city roof was often 2 suspected in eccentricity, 3 to have likely been chasing a passing fad. Today, in a reversal few predicted, the same rooftops are dotted with hives that the city itself has come to welcome.
Across the country, urban beekeeping, along with community gardens and pocket orchards, 4 have been spreading quickly. 5 Although pollinators in the countryside have grown scarcer, city gardeners have discovered that a rooftop can feed a colony surprisingly well.
6 Beekeeping associations in several large cities 7 says that in the past three years the number of registered rooftop hives has climbed steeply, and that most new keepers cite the same reason for taking up 8 there hobby: they want to help local plants set fruit.
1 In one large city, registered hives rose by about 60 percent between 2019 and 2024, to no more than 900. 2 Rising rents and shrinking green space 9 is pushing gardeners upward. 3 And now the honey itself has become a small source of neighborhood pride. 4 A single healthy hive can 10 pollinate gardens for blocks around. 11
The Urban Hive Alliance, 12 that certifies rooftop apiaries and publishes safety 13 guidelines, requiring that hives be registered and kept clear of walkways. Certified keepers may sell their honey at markets, labeling each jar with the neighborhood where the bees foraged and 14 giving buyers the taste of a particular few blocks.
Never before has the city rooftop been so productive a place. Advocates are urging clearer rules and simpler permits so that still more residents can keep bees safely and well.
The Alliance's certified-honey program is feeding public curiosity about rooftop hives and is drawing new keepers to the training courses it runs each spring, steadily widening the circle of people who tend bees above the street. 15
