The “Buzz” About Urban Beekeeping in Hoboken + Jersey City

The “Buzz” About Urban Beekeeping in Hoboken + Jersey City



There’s some buzz happening in Hoboken and Jersey City — literally. More than a dozen experienced beekeepers support our local ecosystem by organizing sustainable actions that benefit both the community and honeybees. Beekeeping might not seem like the type of activity you’d find in the city, but it’s important for a multitude of reasons that include our ecosystem, local honey for the community, and a way for beekeepers to connect with nature. Coined the “honeybee wranglers” by local beekeeper Roger Moss, they spend their time working with various apiaries and educating about the importance of bees. Read on to learn more about the importance of urban beekeeping in Hoboken + Jersey City, New Jersey.


The Buzz About Beekeeping

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Honeybees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the United States each year. Pollination is a vital process by which flowers produce the vegetables, fruits, and nuts that we eat. In an urban setting, beekeeping helps maintain plant diversity in the area and is a way for the local community to connect with nature in the concrete jungle.

“If we want to live in a world that contains flowers, we need to value pollinators,” Roger told The Hoboken Girl.






Roger Moss was introduced to the world of beekeeping 25 years ago at a local fair while he was living in Warwick, New York. He stumbled upon a beekeeper’s demonstration of a glass-like briefcase where you could see the bees interacting with each other, called an observation hive. From that moment, Roger was fascinated and encouraged to join the local bee club, where he was paired with a mentor who took him through the basic steps of obtaining bees and setting them up in his yard.

When Roger and his wife decided to move to Jersey City, he was worried that he would have to give up his beloved hobby. After moving to the area and learning about the community, he was delighted to find his people who had been beekeeping in an urban environment for the last 10-15 years.
Challenges of Beekeeping in an Urban Setting

City living and beekeeping aren’t two things that sound like they go together, but it’s quite common. The biggest difference for beekeeping in urban areas from being out in the suburbs is that there is a finite amount of space to keep a beehive. The ordinance in Jersey City states that there cannot be more than three beehives per acre. With apiaries spread out over the city, it can be difficult for Roger and other beekeepers to get to each one.

“If I want to have 10 beehives, I need to have three locations where I bring my gear,” Roger said. “It’s a little bit time-consuming and frustrating to have to do a little at each site rather than all of it at one site.”

Another challenge is that some people in the community aren’t tolerant of the fact that honeybees sting, and they don’t want them anywhere around them. Roger and other beekeepers typically warn neighbors that there will be a beehive near them and offer them fresh local honey at the end of the season to make having a nearby hive a little sweeter.

“When bees are overpopulated in the hive and they decide to swarm, they’ll land somewhere,” Roger said. “And once they land somewhere, there’s a cluster about the size of a soccer ball or basketball.”



Photo Credit: Roger Moss

Roger noted that swarms can be frightening to those in the community. Beekeepers see them as opportunities to capture and rescue them so they can put them in a beehive. When swarms occur, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture has a listing of all beekeepers to contact. Roger and about a half-dozen other Hudson County beekeepers are included on the list, making them the go-to crew to remove swarms on the move.

Last year alone, Roger was called out 15 times to rescue swarms, including one at the Statue of Liberty.“They were doing work, and I think one of those container ships must have come by, and the bees flew off the container ship,” Roger said. “They landed on this piece of stone and the construction workers didn’t want to go near them.”

Most think that rescuing a swarm would be a complicated ordeal, but that’s not the case for beekeepers. Generally, the bees will be on a limb of a tree or perhaps on a fence post. The beekeepers don’t wear any protection because when they’re swarming, the bees have almost no defense mechanisms.

“They have no honey to protect, they’re just looking for a home,” Roger said.

To rescue the bees, the beekepers will guide the swarm into a cardboard box, close it, and bring it to the nearest apiary.




The Short Life of a Bee



The life of a honeybee is rather short-lived. While the Queen bee lives to be about three years old, her worker bees within the colony only live a month and a half. To accomplish the work they need with such a short life expectancy, there can be up to 45,000 bees in one beehive.

“A honeybee only collects enough nectar to make an eighth of a teaspoon of honey,” Roger said. “So when we think of a jar of honey, that’s thousands of bees and thousands of lifetimes. It’s a very numbers-driven existence.”
The Future of Beekeeping



Roger and his fellow beekeepers are doing everything they can to protect the future of the local bees. While the activity skews older, he and others are making an effort to address the local schools, Boys & Girls Clubs, and 4-H clubs to generate interest. Roger has a syllabus that he presents to these groups and regularly does hour-long presentations about beekeeping and its importance in the community.




The way Roger and his community of beekeepers think about bees is similar to how others view animals like dogs, cats, or other beloved pets. “A colony of bees has a personality,” Roger said. “And I know when I go to certain hives, I know what to expect. There’s this feeling of camaraderie that the beekeeper feels toward the bees because these are living creatures.”