Burgh Bees

Local Links

Local Honey
Country Barn Farm
Sold at Whole Foods

Name/Apiary: Robert Seffes, Jennifer Wood/SteffesWood Apiary
Address: Aliquippa, PA
Phone/Contact: 724-378-7204 beehappyhoney@gmail.com
Markets: Sewickley Farmers Market the last Saturday if the month (unless it rains, the following Saturday). Honey and other bee products.
Availability Also sells honey from Apiary address, and hold open apiaries on Mondays from 1-3.

Name/Apiary: Mark Bedillion/Bedillion's Honey Farm
Address: 1179 Burgettstown Rd., Hickory, PA 15340
Phone/Contact: 724-356-7713 (cell 724-747-4645) route18farm@hotmail.com
Markets: Bedillion's Farm Market; Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays)
Availability Sometime in April to sometime in October. Honey available year round.

Name/Apiary: Churchview Farm
Address: 3897 Churchview Ave, Pgh 15236
Contact: tara@churchviewfarmpgh.com
Website: www.churchviewfarmpgh.com
Markets: On-farm market, only on Sundays 12-4
Availability Late June through fall. E-mail tara regarding availability. Sells out quickly. Note: all honey is raw, unfiletered, unprocessed.

Local Bee Control and Bee Removal*
Stephen Repasky at stephen_repasky@yahoo.com
Jim Abraham, The Bee Hunter
Bee Control

*Stephen Repasky works exclusively with honey bees and will remove them from structures. If you are having problems with insects other than Honey Bees (you can identify your insect here) contact Jim Abraham or Bee Control.

Local Agriculture/Food
Hazelwood Harvest
Grow Pittsburgh
East End Food Coop
Farmers' Markets
Slow Food Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Garden Experiment
Urban Farming Iniative

Local Associations/Resources
Beaver Valley Area Beekeepers Association (BVABA)
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Apiary Registration*
Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association
Pennsylvania State Beekeepers and Inspectors
Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Penn State Cooperative Extension, Allegheny County
Three Rivers Bioneers

*Register your apiary with Pennsylvania.

Local Funding
Sprout Fund

National Links

National Resources
Mid Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium
Penn State Master Gardener Pollinator Garden
US Forest Service Pollinator of the Month
Beekeeping 101
Beekeeper’s Calendar

National Blogs
Urban Apis
Beesource
Beesource Beekeeping Forums
Chicago Honey Coop
UrbanBees
Becky’s Bees & Blooms

Rules of thumb for urban beekeeping

Keep only gentle colonies and employ good swarm management techniques.
Keep no more than four hives on a property of 1/4 acre or less.
All hives within 20 feet of a property line should have a solid fence or vegetative obstruction 5 feet or more in height between the hives and the property line.
All hives within 30 feet of a public sidewalk or roadway should have a solid fence or dense vegetative obstruction or be elevated so as to direct the flight path of the bees well above traffic and pedestrians.
An adequate supply of water should be provided by the property owner or beekeeper from March 1 to October 31. --From MAAREC

Urban beekeeping

Cohen, Stefanie. Beekeeping in the city: That urban buzz you hear is not just the local gossip.

Stojnic, Niki. Buzz kill: Can urban beekeepers save the world? Whole Life Times, July 2007. Available: http://wholelifetimes.com/2007/07/buzzkill0707.html

Todaro, Lenora. Hives among us. Salon.com. 2007. Available: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/07/08/beekeeping/

Urban Apiary blog: http://www.urbanbees.blogspot.com/

Select beekeeping books

Conrad, Ross. 2007. Natural beekeeping: Organic approaches to modern apiculture. (White River Jct., VT: Chelsea Green Publishing).

Flottum, Kim. 2005. The backyard beekeeper: An absolute beginner's guide to keeping bees in your yard and garden. (Beverly, MA: Quarry Books).

Penn State University, 2004. Beekeeping Basics.

Blackiston, Howland, 2009. Beekeeping for Dummies.

Dadant, C.P., 2008. First Lessons in Beekeeping. (Home Farm Books).