We moved into our apartment in the Mission district of San Francisco last November, and had noticed bees swarming in the back yard once or twice.

One Saturday night a few months ago we came home to find that someone had left a large plastic tub with a hole in it on our back stairs, along with a note "Dear Neighbor, you have a swarm of friendly honey bees in your tree. I've put this here to catch them." Then a name and number.

It turns out that she lived around the corner and had been friendly with the former tenant. But our reaction was colored by the break-in the week before when my neighbors computer was stolen.

I called her and asked her to come and take the makeshift hive away, and admonished her for not knocking on the door and asking, but simply climbing through the fence. Now it doesn't feel so strange, but the week after being broken into, it felt really creepy.

As a peace offering, when she came to retrieve the now buzzing hive, she brought us some delicious honey, which tasted a bit like licorice, from all the wild fennel around.

Lots of them. I don't keep bees, I just have a garden. Last year I put in a lavender walk and this year I have far more honeybees than bumblebees, thanks to the lavender. They are crazy for lavender. In late summer, I expect they will switch over to the sedum. They can't get enough sedum. And I can't find enough space to put all the baby sedums that pop up. I used to collect them and offer them to neighbors, but they all complained that the baby sedum died. I asked "Did you water it occasionally?" and found that, well, no, they forgot to water the sedum after dumping them in the ground. They just kind of expected that like a handful of magic beans, the sedum would just erupt. When you consider how little water sedum needs once you establish it, it's kind of pathetic to think that one watering was too much to fit into people's busy schedules.

I've never seen a hive anywhere nearby, though I know there is a local apiary somewhere because you can buy locally harvested honey in our supermarket. I wonder if the honeybees belong to the apiary which produces that honey?

You know, people who steal your computer generally don't leave a name and number. It's a good idea to think before reacting.

Have isilated urban bee keepers also experiencec bee colony collapse syndrome?

Does the cell phone theory that 900-1800MHz signals from cell phones disorient bees to the point where they cant find their ways home have more grip on urban reality? OR is there no urban impact, hence maybe cell phones are irrelevant??

empirical experience welcome from thiseclose to urban hives.

-Zym, Seattle

a friend wrote an article about the missing bees by asking a couple local experts, including Brian Fredericksen of Ames Farm (an organic single-source honey operation in Minnesota):

http://www.wedge.coop/produce/produce-bees.html

Ours is a culture of deep denial.

Take the BEE DIE OFF...

due, certainly to a combination, certainly of all the Cheneys of pesticide, auto and corporate smog,Jet fuel exhaust, those pefumed magazines and odors as well as radiation emitting from Hip hop and US television.

But the spike of Bee die-off began within just the past few years. ABC news quotes German and Swiss science a few weeks ago- IT IS THOSE HANDY ; LITTLE MORONIC TELEPHONES WE all CARRY IN OUR POCKETS AND BAGS. We, not THEY are killing our bees. Maybe we can all keep a spare planet on the speed dial, for later, when all the blossoms in the world vanish. Pericles Greek Women slathered on lead face paint, parthenogenesis and questionable mental health and diet did in the Romans. Napoleon and the Nazis foolishly invaded Russia- We are jabbering ourselves to perdition on our toys.

Why understate the existing science, Salon?

smoke from bullets shot from automatic weapons = good for the environment

detritus from the dropping of bombs = good cloud fertilizer

destroying homes by plowing into them with bulldozers and

releasing a century's worth of dust & mold = replenishing the

beneficial smog layer of the atmosphere

diesel fumes from bulldozers used to destroy homes = excellent aerial disinfectant and stimulant to lungs

depleted uranium used in weapons designed to kill people=prevents future wars between humans in that location because no people can ever live in that location again

with all these beneficial sequelae of warfare, whyever do Americans prefer to "fight 'em over there so we don't have to fight 'em over here?"

...in the Gardnerville, NV area. They also did wonderfully in the Lamoille area outside of Elko, NV but we moved this year due to jobs so had to relocate hives as well.

The "cellphones kill bees" theory has been quite thoroughly debunked. (For one thing, cellphones have been around in large numbers for nearly two decades, yet it's only been within the last couple of years that CCD has hit hard.) Please put down Occam's Razor before you slash yourself to death with it.

My life is better knowing that grizzly bears are in Alaska and British Columbia. Likewise, I'm pleased to learn that bees can do well in NYC. I'm impressed with NYC's rooftop bee keepers. Ignore the zoning laws and enjoy your bees and honey.

Repohl grew up in the San Fernando Valley, "halfway between L.A. and Disneyland."

FYI: The San Fernando Valley is about 15 miles north of Los Angeles. Disneyland is about 30 miles south of Los Angeles.

Now I have to wonder what's in Repohl's honey.

Maybe the writer should recheck her interview tape, because this statement makes him sound like he's either really dumb, or a pathological liar.

I live in Silverlake, between Hollywood and Glendale. When I read that sentence in the article, I thought the same as you did. But after a moment, I realized Repohl was speaking metaphorically. After all, if I know the geographic position of the Valley, clearly someone who lives there will know where he lives even better.

Not everything people say should be taken literally. Sometimes they're, you know, joking.