Urban Beekeeping: Noah Wilson-Rich at TEDxBoston

We depend on bees to pollinate our crops yet the cost of these fruits and vegetables continues to rise as bees rapidly and mysteriously disappear. Noah Wilson-Rich, founder of Boston's Best Bees Company, teaches us how urban beekeeping just might save a city and a species in this TEDPrize City 2.0 talk.

Now that your minds are open

I would like to tell you
my goal for this talk.

Which is to change your
perspective on many things.

How about this for one?

(Laughter)

This man is wearing
what we call a "Bee Beard."

A beard full of bees.

Now this is what many
of you might picture

when you think about honeybees.

Maybe insects or maybe anything
that has more legs than two.

And let me start by telling
you I gotcha. I understand that.

But there are many things to know

and I want you to open your minds here,

keep them open and change
your perspective about honeybees.

Notice that this man
is not getting stung.

He probably has a
queen bee tied to his chin

and the other bees are attracted to it.

so this really demonstrates
our relationship with honeybees

and that goes deep back
for thousands of years.

We're very co-evolved because
we depend on bees for pollination

and even more recently
as an economic commodity.

Many of you may have heard
that honeybees are disappearing.

Not just dying, but they're gone.

We don't even find dead bodies.

This is called
"Colony Collapse Disorder"

and it's bizarre.

Researchers around the globe
still do not know what's causing it.

But what we do know is that
with the declining numbers of bees

the costs of over a 130 fruit
and vegetable crops that we rely on

for food is going up in price.

So honeybees are important
for their roll in the economy

as well as in agriculture.

Here you can see some pictures
of what are called green roofs

or urban agriculture.

We're familiar with
the image on the left.

That shows a local neighborhood
garden in the south end.

That's where I call home.
I have a beehive in the backyard.

And perhaps a green roof in the future

when we're further
utilizing urban areas

where there are
stacks of garden spaces.

Check out this image above
the orange line in Boston.

Try to spot the beehive.

It's there!

It's on the rooftop
right on the corner there

and it's been there
for a couple of years now.

The way that urban beekeeping
currently operates is that the

beehives are quite hidden
and it's not because they need to be,

it's just because people are
uncomfortable with the idea.

And that's why I want you today
to try to think about this.

Think about the
benefits of bees in cities

and why they really
are a terrific thing.

Let me give you a brief
rundown on how pollination works.

So we know flowers.
We know fruits and vegetables.

Even some alfalfa
and hay that the livestock

for the meats that we eat
rely on pollinators.

But you've got male and female
parts to a plant here

and basically the pollinators are
attracted to plants for their nectar

and in the process a bee will visit
some flowers and pick up some pollen

or that male, kind of sperm
counterpart along the way

and then travel to different flowers

and eventually, an apple
in this case will be produced.

You can see the orientation,
the stem is down.

The blossom end has fallen off
by the time we eat it.

But that's a basic overview
of how pollination works.

And let's think about urban living,
not today and not in the past

but what about in 100 years.

What's it going to look like?

We have huge, grand challenges
these days of habitat loss.

We have more and more people,
billions of people.

In 100 years god knows how many
people and how little space

there will be to fit all of them.

So we need to change
the way that we see cities.

And looking at this picture
on the left of New York City today

you can see how gray and brown it is.

We have tarpaper on the rooftops

that bounces heat back
into the atmosphere.

Contributing to global
climate change no doubt.

What about in 100 years.
If we have green rooftops everywhere

and gardening and we create
our own crops right in the cities.

We save on the cost of transportation.

We save on a healthier diet

and we also educate
and create new jobs locally.

We need bees for the future
of our cities and urban living.

Here's some data that we collected

through our company with Best Bees.

Where we deliver, install
and manage honeybee hives

for anybody who wants them.

In the city, in the countryside.

And we introduce honeybees
and the idea of beekeeping

in your own back yard or rooftop
or fire escape for even that matter.

And seeing how simple it is
and how possible it is.

There's a counterintuitive trend
that we noticed in these numbers.

So let's look at the first metric here.

Overwintering survival.

Now this has been a
huge problem for many years.

Basically since the late 1980's
when the Varroa Mite came

and brought many different viruses,
bacteria and fungal diseases with it.

Overwintering success is hard and that's
when most of the colonies are lost.

And we found that in the cities
bees are surviving better

than they are in the country.
A bit counterintuitive right?

We think, Oh bees,
countryside, agriculture.

But that's not what
the bees are showing.

The bees like it in the city.

Furthermore, they
also produce more honey.

The urban honey is delicious.

The bees in Boston on the
rooftop of the Seaport Hotel

where we have hundreds of thousands
of bees flying overhead right now -

that I'm sure none of you
noticed when we walked by -

are going to all of the
local community gardens

and making delicious, healthy honey

that just tastes like
the flowers in our city.

So the yield for urban hives
in terms of honey production

is higher as well

as the overwintering
survival compared to rural areas.

Again a bit counterintuitive.

And looking back historically
at the timeline of honeybee health

we can go back to the year 950
and see that there was also

a great mortality of bees in Ireland.

So the problem with bees today
isn't necessarily something new.

It has been happening
since over 1,000 years ago.

But what we don't really
notice are these problems in cities.

One thing I want to
encourage you to think about

is the idea of what an urban island is.

You think in the city maybe
the temperature is warmer.

Why are bees doing better in the city?

This is a big question
now to help us understand

why they should be in the city.

Perhaps there's more pollen in the city

with the trains coming into urban hubs

they can carry pollen with them,

very light pollen and it's just
a big supermarket in the city.

Lot of linden trees live
along the railroad tracks.

Perhaps there are fewer
pesticides in the cities

than there are in [rural] areas.

Perhaps there are other things
we're just not thinking about yet.

But that's one idea
to think about, urban islands.

And Colony Collapse Disorder

is not the only
thing affecting honeybees.

Honeybees are dying and it's a huge,

huge grand challenge of our time.

What you can see up here
is a map of the world

and we're tracking the
spread of this Varroa Mite.

Now the Varroa Mite is what
changed the game in beekeeping.

And you can see at the
top right the years are changing.

We're coming up to modern times

and you can see the
spread of the Varroa Mite.

From the early 1900's
through now it's 1968

and we're pretty much covering Asia.

1971 we saw it spread
to Europe and South America.

And then when we get to the 1980's

and specifically in 1987,

the Varroa Mite finally came

to North America, to the United States.

And that is when the game changed

for honeybees in the United States.

Many of us will remember
our childhood growing up

maybe you got stung by a bee,
you saw bees in flowers.

Think of the kids today.

Their childhood's a bit different.

They don't experience this.

The bees just aren't around anymore.

So we need bees and they're
disappearing and it's a big problem.

What can we do here?

So what I do is honeybee research.

I got my PhD
studying honeybee health.

I started in 2005 studying honeybees.

In 2006 honeybees
started disappearing.

So suddenly like this little nerd kid

going to school working with bugs

became very relevant in the world.
(Laughter)

It just was serendipitously.

And it worked out that way.

So my research focuses
on ways to make bees healthier.

I don't research what's
killing the bees per se.

I'm not one of the many
researchers around the world

who's looking at the effects
of pesticides or diseases

or habitat loss
and poor nutrition on bees.

I'm a step beyond that.

We're looking at ways to make
bees healthier through vaccines.

Through yogurt, like probiotics,
and other types of therapies.

In ways that can be fed orally to bees

and this process is so easy
even a 7 year old can do it.

You just mix up some
pollen, sugar and water

and whatever active ingredient
you want to put in and give it

to the bees, no chemicals involved.
Just immune boosters.

Humans think about our own
health in a prospective way.

We exercise, we eat
healthy, we take vitamins.

Why don't we think about honeybees
in that same type of way?

Bring them to areas
where they're thriving

and try to make them healthier
before they get sick.

I spent many years in grad
school trying to poke bees

and do vaccines with needles.
(Laughter)

Like years.
Years at the bench.

Oh my gosh, it's 3 am and
I'm still pricking bees.

And then one day I said

"Why don't we just do an oral vaccine?"

It's like, "Ugh",
so that's what we do.

(Laughter)

I'd love to share with you
some images of urban bee hives.

Because they can be anything.

I mean really open you mind with this.

You can paint a
hive to match your home.

You can hide a hive inside your home.

These are three hives on the rooftop
of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel.

And they're beautiful here.

We matched the new color
of the inside of their rooms

to do some type of a stained wood
with blue for their sheets.

And these bees are terrific.

And they also will use herbs
that are growing in the garden.

That's what the chefs go to
to use for their cooking.

And the honey.
They do live events.

They'll use that honey at their bars.

Honey is a great nutritional
substitute for regular sugar

because of different
types of sugars in there.

We also have a classroom hives project

where - this is a nonprofit venture -

we're spreading the
word around the world

for how honeybee hives can
be taken into the classroom

or into the museum
setting behind glass

and used as an educational tool.

This hive that you see here,

has been in Fenway High School
for many years now.

The bees fly right into
the outfield of Fenway Park.

Nobody notices it.

If you're not a flower,
these bees do not care about you.

(Laughter)

They don't. They don't.

They'll say "S'cuse me,
flying around."

So there are a lot of different
things to learn about bees.

We work with Italian bees
and they are very docile.

They are good honey producers.

They're not an aggressive type of bee.

That's something to learn about.
There are different kinds.

And students in
this geometry classroom

have learned how that hexagonal
shape has evolved in nature.

Why don't bees make a
square pattern in the wax?

Why don't they do triangle?

And the teacher there,
Benedette Manning, just won

an outstanding teacher
of the year award

from the Boston public
school system for her work

with honeybees in the classroom.

It's terrific.

Some other images here
in telling a part of the story

that really made
urban beekeeping terrific

is in New York City
beekeeping was illegal until 2010.

That's a big problem
because what's going

to pollenate all of the gardens
and the produce locally? Hands?

I mean locally in Boston
there is a terrific company

called Green City Growers
and they are going and pollenating

our squash crops by hand with Q-tips.

And if they miss that
three day window there's no fruit.

Their clients aren't
happy and people go hungry.

So this is important. We have also
some images of honey from Brooklyn.

Now this was a mystery
in the NY Times

where the honey was very red.

And the New York state
forensics department came in

and actually did some science
to match the red dye with that

found in a maraschino cherry
factory down the street. (Laughter)

So you can tailor your honey
to taste however you want

by planting bee friendly flowers.

Paris has been a terrific
model for urban beekeeping.

They've had hives on the rooftop
of their opera house

for many years now
and that's what really

got people started thinking.

Wow, we can do this
and we should do this.

Also in London and
in Europe across the board

they're very advanced
in their use of green rooftops

and integrating beehives.

And I'll show you
an ending note here.

I would like to encourage
you to open your mind.

What can you do to save
the bees or to help them

or to think of sustainable
cities in the future?

Well really just
change your perspective.

Try to understand that
bees are very important.

A bee isn't going to
sting you if you see it.

The bee dies.
Honeybees die when they sting.

So they don't want to do it either.
(Laughter)

It's nothing to panic about.

They're all over the city.

You could even get
your own hive if you want.

There are great resources available,
and even companies

that will help you set up
and mentor you.

And it's important for our
educational system in the world

for students to learn
about agriculture worldwide.

Such as this little girl who,
again, is not even getting stung.

Thank you.

(Applause)