[upbeat folk music]
[bright acoustic music]
- Inga: Backyards across the city of Eau Claire
are buzzing with activity, thanks to my friend Drew,
who's been working with local residents
to promote the practice of urban beekeeping.
I visited Drew while he was tending to one of his hives
to find out why backyards are ideal places to produce honey.
Hey, Drew! - Oh, hey, Inga, how's it going?
- Good, how are you doing? - Good.
- I'm gonna stay back from the bees.
- Yeah, no problem.
I'm just finishing up, so they should be going back
into their colony pretty good now.
- If I get stung by a bee, I swell like crazy,
and I don't need to swell any more.
- Yeah, you know, I haven't swelled up much.
One time, I got stung by about 40 bees and it was fine.
- Jiminy, lucky. - Yeah, some people get lucky.
- So this is the first time that I've been in a backyard,
in Eau Claire, in a neighborhood,
and seen bees being kept.
I usually see 'em way out in the fields.
- Absolutely, yeah.
We do both.
The reality of it is,
is that we've seen that bees do a little bit better
in the city actually. - Really? Why is that?
- Well, there's a lot of reasons.
There's a bit more diversity in the types of flowers blooming.
Bees need constant food,
and so any time that there isn't something flowering
in their immediate area,
they're having to tap into their reserves.
And so in the city, there's people's gardens,
there's dandelions, there's trees blossoming
and all kinds of stuff, and so that coupled with,
I think that people who have beehives in their backyard
tend to do a little bit more watching of the beehives
than maybe if it's out in a pasture and kind of sitting.
- Right.
[upbeat folksy music]
So what made you passionate about doing this?
'Cause you passed the bill in Eau Claire
to be able to do backyard beekeeping.
- Right, so funny enough, I came to it
through a couple of different means.
But I was doing art in around 2010,
where I was making collages out of beeswax,
and my now-wife was working on a project
with some geography professors at UW-Eau Claire,
learning about bee mortality.
And she slowly, we won't say conned,
but she convinced me to get a little bit more involved.
And as we started going through the process
of keeping bees there,
we learned that keeping bees in the city of Eau Claire
was technically illegal.
So we ran a petition drive,
gathered about 500 or 600 signatures from residents,
and then over the course of about two years,
I sat down with the sustainability commission
and then inevitably with the city council,
passed a resolution to be able to keep bees in backyards.
- Why are you passionate about that?
- It offers me a chance to interact with the world
on an environmental level, on an agricultural level.
You know, it's very... It might not sound relaxing,
but there's something really relaxing
about being in a cloud of thousands of bees.
- Inga: That does not sound relaxing.
- Yeah, you know, you have to learn to let go of some anxiety
and move slowly and consciously.
And so I tend to be very fast-paced
with a lot of my life, and so when I go to bees,
I really have to push most of that aside and say,
"I'm gonna take the time to do it right."
And as long as I'm not in a rush,
then the bees really don't mind me being there.
- That is so interesting.
I know there's a lot of different kinds of honey,
and we always see a wildflower honey or things like this.
What is the difference there?
- Sure, honey is really localized.
Honey bees forage somewhere between three and five miles
around their colony.
- Oh, that's not a lot really. - No, it's a pretty tight area.
So in Eau Claire, we have hives on the north, south,
and east side of town, so you get really different flavors.
Depending upon what they're foraging on,
it's gonna change the color of the honey,
it's gonna change the viscosity,
you know, the flavor is really gonna change.
- We know that there's problems with bees
and we need bees, obviously.
What are some ways that we can, even in our backyard in town,
what are some ways that we can help support the bees?
- Sure.
I always say, leave the dandelions, first of all.
- I hate mowing my lawn, so I've got you covered there.
- You know, I think there's a couple of things you can do.
Obviously, planting gardens and having flowers available
is really important.
Being conscientious about how you use pesticides.
Pesticides are a really big problem with not only bees,
but birds and a lot of other species
that go up the food chain.
And then beyond that, just supporting local producers.
Whether it's the local beekeeper or the local dairy farmer.
People who are growing in your area
are doing it for the benefit of your community,
and supporting them helps support the bees.
- Well, I would love to get some of your honey, Drew.
- Absolutely; let's go down to my favorite place to get it.
- Awesome. - Yeah.
[cheerful folksy music]
Hey, how's it going Wes?
Good to see you.
Could I get two jars of honey please?
Awesome, thank you.
- Well, this is fantastic.
There is nothing more Wisconsin
than getting your local honey at your local bar.
[Drew chuckling] - Drew: We think so too.
- Would you guys like to come out for supper later on?
You and your wife? - Yeah, that'd be great.
We'd love to join. - Great.
Well, I'd love to stick around here and have a beer,
but it's time for us to head out
and learn about some Murray Grey beef cattle.
[upbeat folk music]