0:00:01.552,0:00:04.266
This man is wearing what we call

0:00:04.266,0:00:07.036
a bee beard. (Laughter)

0:00:07.036,0:00:08.485
A beard full of bees.

0:00:08.485,0:00:11.728
Now, this is what many of you might picture

0:00:11.728,0:00:14.701
when you think about honeybees, maybe insects,

0:00:14.701,0:00:17.789
or maybe anything that has more legs than two.

0:00:17.789,0:00:20.447
And let me start by telling you, I gotcha.

0:00:20.447,0:00:24.928
I understand that. But, there are many things to know,

0:00:24.928,0:00:27.608
and I want you to open your minds here,

0:00:27.608,0:00:31.098
keep them open, and change your perspective about honeybees.

0:00:31.098,0:00:34.063
Notice that this man is not getting stung.

0:00:34.063,0:00:37.507
He probably has a queen bee tied to his chin,

0:00:37.507,0:00:39.626
and the other bees are attracted to it.

0:00:39.626,0:00:43.662
So this really demonstrates our relationship with honeybees,

0:00:43.662,0:00:47.430
and that goes deep back for thousands of years.

0:00:47.430,0:00:50.592
We're very co-evolved, because we depend on bees

0:00:50.592,0:00:53.552
for pollination and, even more recently,

0:00:53.552,0:00:55.376
as an economic commodity.

0:00:55.376,0:00:58.176
Many of you may have heard that honeybees are disappearing,

0:00:58.176,0:01:00.753
not just dying, but they're gone.

0:01:00.753,0:01:02.555
We don't even find dead bodies.

0:01:02.555,0:01:04.926
This is called colony collapse disorder,

0:01:04.926,0:01:07.138
and it's bizarre. Researchers around the globe

0:01:07.138,0:01:09.584
still do not know what's causing it,

0:01:09.584,0:01:12.154
but what we do know is that, with the declining numbers

0:01:12.154,0:01:16.391
of bees, the costs of over 130 fruit and vegetable crops

0:01:16.391,0:01:21.398
that we rely on for food is going up in price.

0:01:21.398,0:01:25.156
So honeybees are important for their role in the economy

0:01:25.156,0:01:27.181
as well as in agriculture.

0:01:27.181,0:01:29.000
Here you can see some pictures of what are called

0:01:29.000,0:01:31.689
green roofs, or urban agriculture.

0:01:31.689,0:01:33.967
We're familiar with the image on the left that shows

0:01:33.967,0:01:36.751
a local neighborhood garden in the South End.

0:01:36.751,0:01:39.542
That's where I call home. I have a beehive in the backyard.

0:01:39.542,0:01:41.961
And perhaps a green roof in the future,

0:01:41.961,0:01:43.892
when we're further utilizing urban areas,

0:01:43.892,0:01:47.350
where there are stacks of garden spaces.

0:01:47.350,0:01:50.703
Check out this image above the orange line in Boston.

0:01:50.703,0:01:54.180
Try to spot the beehive. It's there.

0:01:54.180,0:01:56.877
It's on the rooftop, right on the corner there,

0:01:56.877,0:01:59.270
and it's been there for a couple of years now.

0:01:59.270,0:02:02.522
The way that urban beekeeping currently operates

0:02:02.522,0:02:05.113
is that the beehives are quite hidden,

0:02:05.113,0:02:07.140
and it's not because they need to be.

0:02:07.140,0:02:10.117
It's just because people are uncomfortable with the idea,

0:02:10.117,0:02:13.791
and that's why I want you today to try to think about this,

0:02:13.791,0:02:16.074
think about the benefits of bees in cities

0:02:16.074,0:02:18.333
and why they really are a terrific thing.

0:02:18.333,0:02:21.303
Let me give you a brief rundown on how pollination works.

0:02:21.303,0:02:23.886
So we know flowers, we know fruits and vegetables,

0:02:23.886,0:02:27.092
even some alfalfa in hay that the livestock

0:02:27.092,0:02:29.555
for the meats that we eat, rely on pollinators,

0:02:29.555,0:02:32.988
but you've got male and female parts to a plant here,

0:02:32.988,0:02:35.878
and basically pollinators are attracted to plants

0:02:35.878,0:02:38.905
for their nectar, and in the process,

0:02:38.905,0:02:42.280
a bee will visit some flowers and pick up some pollen,

0:02:42.280,0:02:45.712
or that male kind of sperm counterpart, along the way,

0:02:45.712,0:02:48.330
and then travel to different flowers, and eventually

0:02:48.330,0:02:51.449
an apple, in this case, will be produced.

0:02:51.449,0:02:53.716
You can see the orientation. The stem is down.

0:02:53.716,0:02:56.670
The blossom end has fallen off by the time we eat it,

0:02:56.670,0:02:59.528
but that's a basic overview of how pollination works.

0:02:59.528,0:03:02.400
And let's think about urban living, not today,

0:03:02.400,0:03:05.265
and not in the past, but what about in a hundred years?

0:03:05.265,0:03:09.203
What's it gonna look like? We have huge grand challenges

0:03:09.203,0:03:13.133
these days of habitat loss. We have more and more people,

0:03:13.133,0:03:16.494
billions of people, in 100 years, God knows how many people,

0:03:16.494,0:03:19.858
and how little space there will be to fit all of them,

0:03:19.858,0:03:23.280
so we need to change the way that we see cities, and

0:03:23.280,0:03:26.643
looking at this picture on the left of New York City today,

0:03:26.643,0:03:28.510
you can see how gray and brown it is.

0:03:28.510,0:03:32.041
We have tar paper on the rooftops that bounces heat back

0:03:32.041,0:03:34.077
into the atmosphere,

0:03:34.077,0:03:36.412
contributing to global climate change, no doubt.

0:03:36.412,0:03:38.912
What about in 100 years, if we have green rooftops

0:03:38.912,0:03:42.075
everywhere, and gardening, and we create our own crops

0:03:42.075,0:03:45.878
right in the cities? We save on the costs of transportation,

0:03:45.878,0:03:49.974
we save on a healthier diet, and we also educate

0:03:49.974,0:03:51.676
and create new jobs locally.

0:03:51.676,0:03:56.342
We need bees for the future of our cities and urban living.

0:03:56.342,0:03:59.726
Here's some data that we collected through our company

0:03:59.726,0:04:02.628
with Best Bees, where we deliver, install and manage

0:04:02.628,0:04:04.871
honeybee hives for anybody who wants them,

0:04:04.871,0:04:08.388
in the city, in the countryside, and we introduce honeybees,

0:04:08.388,0:04:11.247
and the idea of beekeeping in your own backyard or rooftop

0:04:11.247,0:04:13.728
or fire escape, for even that matter,

0:04:13.728,0:04:16.502
and seeing how simple it is and how possible it is.

0:04:16.502,0:04:18.634
There's a counterintuitive trend that we noticed

0:04:18.634,0:04:22.077
in these numbers. So let's look at the first metric here,

0:04:22.077,0:04:23.477
overwintering survival.

0:04:23.477,0:04:26.302
Now this has been a huge problem for many years,

0:04:26.302,0:04:30.362
basically since the late 1980s, when the varroa mite came

0:04:30.362,0:04:33.738
and brought many different viruses, bacteria

0:04:33.738,0:04:35.542
and fungal diseases with it.

0:04:35.542,0:04:37.291
Overwintering success is hard,

0:04:37.291,0:04:39.584
and that's when most of the colonies are lost,

0:04:39.584,0:04:42.250
and we found that in the cities, bees are surviving

0:04:42.250,0:04:44.598
better than they are in the country.

0:04:44.598,0:04:46.826
A bit counterintuitive, right?

0:04:46.826,0:04:48.908
We think, oh, bees, countryside, agriculture,

0:04:48.908,0:04:51.135
but that's not what the bees are showing.

0:04:51.135,0:04:53.284
The bees like it in the city. (Laughter)

0:04:53.284,0:04:56.431
Furthermore, they also produce more honey.

0:04:56.431,0:04:59.000
The urban honey is delicious.

0:04:59.000,0:05:02.097
The bees in Boston on the rooftop of the Seaport Hotel,

0:05:02.097,0:05:04.569
where we have hundreds of thousands of bees

0:05:04.569,0:05:06.072
flying overheard right now

0:05:06.072,0:05:08.377
that I'm sure none of you noticed when we walked by,

0:05:08.377,0:05:10.687
are going to all of the local community gardens

0:05:10.687,0:05:13.086
and making delicious, healthy honey

0:05:13.086,0:05:16.114
that just tastes like the flowers in our city.

0:05:16.114,0:05:20.901
So the yield for urban hives, in terms of honey production,

0:05:20.901,0:05:24.016
is higher as well as the overwintering survival,

0:05:24.016,0:05:25.390
compared to rural areas.

0:05:25.390,0:05:27.392
Again, a bit counterintuitive.

0:05:27.392,0:05:30.713
And looking back historically at the timeline

0:05:30.713,0:05:34.989
of honeybee health, we can go back to the year 950 and see

0:05:34.989,0:05:38.037
that there was also a great mortality of bees in Ireland.

0:05:38.037,0:05:41.188
So the problems of bees today isn't necessarily

0:05:41.188,0:05:43.813
something new. It has been happening

0:05:43.813,0:05:45.880
since over a thousand years ago,

0:05:45.880,0:05:49.577
but what we don't really notice are these problems in cities.

0:05:49.577,0:05:51.605
So one thing I want to encourage you to think about

0:05:51.605,0:05:54.007
is the idea of what an urban island is.

0:05:54.007,0:05:57.403
You think in the city maybe the temperature's warmer.

0:05:57.403,0:05:58.982
Why are bees doing better in the city?

0:05:58.982,0:06:01.654
This is a big question now to help us understand

0:06:01.654,0:06:03.975
why they should be in the city.

0:06:03.975,0:06:05.997
Perhaps there's more pollen in the city.

0:06:05.997,0:06:08.213
With the trains coming in to urban hubs, they can

0:06:08.213,0:06:10.792
carry pollen with them, very light pollen,

0:06:10.792,0:06:13.129
and it's just a big supermarket in the city.

0:06:13.129,0:06:16.956
A lot of linden trees live along the railroad tracks.

0:06:16.956,0:06:19.722
Perhaps there are fewer pesticides in the cities

0:06:19.722,0:06:21.940
than there are in [rural] areas.

0:06:21.940,0:06:24.792
Perhaps there are other things that we're just not thinking about yet,

0:06:24.792,0:06:27.399
but that's one idea to think about, urban islands.

0:06:27.399,0:06:31.323
And colony collapse disorder is not the only thing

0:06:31.323,0:06:34.225
affecting honeybees. Honeybees are dying,

0:06:34.225,0:06:37.929
and it's a huge, huge grand challenge of our time.

0:06:37.929,0:06:40.401
What you can see up here is a map of the world,

0:06:40.401,0:06:43.473
and we're tracking the spread of this varroa mite.

0:06:43.473,0:06:46.161
Now, the varroa mite is what changed the game

0:06:46.161,0:06:49.016
in beekeeping, and you can see, at the top right,

0:06:49.016,0:06:52.279
the years are changing, we're coming up to modern times,

0:06:52.279,0:06:54.609
and you can see the spread of the varroa mite

0:06:54.609,0:06:57.260
from the early 1900s through now.

0:06:57.260,0:07:00.211
It's 1968, and we're pretty much covering Asia.

0:07:00.211,0:07:04.273
1971, we saw it spread to Europe and South America,

0:07:04.273,0:07:08.661
and then, when we get to the 1980s,

0:07:08.661,0:07:12.895
and specifically to 1987, the varroa mite finally came

0:07:12.895,0:07:15.277
to North America and to the United States,

0:07:15.277,0:07:17.733
and that is when the game changed

0:07:17.733,0:07:20.414
for honeybees in the United States.

0:07:20.414,0:07:22.502
Many of us will remember our childhood growing up,

0:07:22.502,0:07:24.728
maybe you got stung by a bee, you saw bees on flowers.

0:07:24.728,0:07:28.666
Think of the kids today. Their childhood's a bit different.

0:07:28.666,0:07:30.590
They don't experience this.

0:07:30.590,0:07:33.090
The bees just aren't around anymore.

0:07:33.090,0:07:36.530
So we need bees and they're disappearing and it's a big problem.

0:07:36.530,0:07:38.235
What can we do here?

0:07:38.235,0:07:40.800
So, what I do is honeybee research.

0:07:40.800,0:07:42.893
I got my Ph.D. studying honeybee health.

0:07:42.893,0:07:46.358
I started in 2005 studying honeybees.

0:07:46.358,0:07:48.700
In 2006, honeybees started disappearing,

0:07:48.700,0:07:51.061
so suddenly, like, this little nerd kid

0:07:51.061,0:07:53.678
going to school working with bugs — (Laughter) —

0:07:53.678,0:07:55.771
became very relevant in the world.

0:07:55.771,0:07:56.852
And it worked out that way.

0:07:56.852,0:08:00.851
So my research focuses on ways to make bees healthier.

0:08:00.851,0:08:03.642
I don't research what's killing the bees, per se.

0:08:03.642,0:08:05.825
I'm not one of the many researchers around the world

0:08:05.825,0:08:08.896
who's looking at the effects of pesticides or diseases

0:08:08.896,0:08:11.448
or habitat loss and poor nutrition on bees.

0:08:11.448,0:08:13.441
We're looking at ways to make bees healthier

0:08:13.441,0:08:17.072
through vaccines, through yogurt, like probiotics,

0:08:17.072,0:08:21.872
and other types of therapies in ways that can be fed orally to bees,

0:08:21.872,0:08:24.907
and this process is so easy, even a 7-year-old can do it.

0:08:24.907,0:08:27.267
You just mix up some pollen, sugar and water,

0:08:27.267,0:08:29.069
and whatever active ingredient you want to put in,

0:08:29.069,0:08:31.267
and you just give it right to the bees. No chemicals involved,

0:08:31.267,0:08:33.437
just immune boosters.

0:08:33.437,0:08:35.637
Humans think about our own health in a prospective way.

0:08:35.637,0:08:38.297
We exercise, we eat healthy, we take vitamins.

0:08:38.297,0:08:41.340
Why don't we think about honeybees in that same type of way?

0:08:41.340,0:08:43.906
Bring them to areas where they're thriving

0:08:43.906,0:08:47.342
and try to make them healthier before they get sick.

0:08:47.342,0:08:51.531
I spent many years in grad school trying to poke bees and do vaccines

0:08:51.531,0:08:54.873
with needles. (Laughter) Like, years,

0:08:54.873,0:08:57.175
years at the bench, "Oh my gosh, it's 3 a.m.

0:08:57.175,0:08:58.526
and I'm still pricking bees." (Laughter)

0:08:58.526,0:09:02.400
And then one day I said, "Why don't we just do an oral vaccine?"

0:09:02.400,0:09:07.048
It's like, "Ugh," so that's what we do. (Laughter)

0:09:07.048,0:09:10.236
I'd love to share with you some images of urban beehives,

0:09:10.236,0:09:12.718
because they can be anything.

0:09:12.718,0:09:14.621
I mean, really open your mind with this.

0:09:14.621,0:09:16.795
You can paint a hive to match your home.

0:09:16.795,0:09:20.165
You can hide a hive inside your home.

0:09:20.165,0:09:21.977
These are three hives on the rooftop

0:09:21.977,0:09:24.088
of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel,

0:09:24.088,0:09:26.548
and they're beautiful here. I mean, we matched

0:09:26.548,0:09:29.229
the new color of the inside of their rooms to do

0:09:29.229,0:09:32.466
some type of a stained wood with blue for their sheets,

0:09:32.466,0:09:35.485
and these bees are terrific, and they also will use

0:09:35.485,0:09:38.091
herbs that are growing in the garden.

0:09:38.091,0:09:41.190
That's what the chefs go to to use for their cooking,

0:09:41.190,0:09:43.069
and the honey -- they do live events --

0:09:43.069,0:09:45.207
they'll use that honey at their bars.

0:09:45.207,0:09:47.827
Honey is a great nutritional substitute for regular sugar

0:09:47.827,0:09:49.954
because there are different types of sugars in there.

0:09:49.954,0:09:52.331
We also have a classroom hives project,

0:09:52.331,0:09:54.983
where -- this is a nonprofit venture --

0:09:54.983,0:09:58.100
we're spreading the word around the world for how

0:09:58.100,0:10:00.385
honeybee hives can be taken into the classroom

0:10:00.385,0:10:02.691
or into the museum setting, behind glass,

0:10:02.691,0:10:05.099
and used as an educational tool.

0:10:05.099,0:10:06.723
This hive that you see here has been

0:10:06.723,0:10:09.274
in Fenway High School for many years now.

0:10:09.274,0:10:11.233
The bees fly right into the outfield of Fenway Park.

0:10:11.233,0:10:13.188
Nobody notices it. If you're not a flower,

0:10:13.188,0:10:15.809
these bees do not care about you. (Laughter)

0:10:15.809,0:10:18.180
They don't. They don't. They'll say,

0:10:18.180,0:10:21.091
"S'cuse me, flying around." (Laughter)

0:10:21.091,0:10:23.654
Some other images here in telling a part of the story

0:10:23.654,0:10:26.292
that really made urban beekeeping terrific is

0:10:26.292,0:10:29.656
in New York City, beekeeping was illegal until 2010.

0:10:29.656,0:10:32.993
That's a big problem, because what's going to pollinate

0:10:32.993,0:10:36.417
all of the gardens and the produce locally? Hands?

0:10:36.417,0:10:39.773
I mean, locally in Boston, there is a terrific company

0:10:39.773,0:10:42.178
called Green City Growers, and they are going

0:10:42.178,0:10:45.689
and pollinating their squash crops by hand with Q-Tips,

0:10:45.689,0:10:48.243
and if they miss that three day window, there's no fruit.

0:10:48.243,0:10:51.146
Their clients aren't happy, and people go hungry.

0:10:51.146,0:10:53.014
So this is important.

0:10:53.014,0:10:55.121
We have also some images of honey from Brooklyn.

0:10:55.121,0:10:57.073
Now, this was a mystery in the New York Times

0:10:57.073,0:10:58.921
where the honey was very red, and the

0:10:58.921,0:11:00.445
New York State forensics department came in

0:11:00.445,0:11:03.047
and they actually did some science to match

0:11:03.047,0:11:05.567
the red dye with that found

0:11:05.567,0:11:08.818
in a maraschino cherry factory down the street. (Laughter)

0:11:08.818,0:11:12.216
So you can tailor your honey to taste however you want

0:11:12.216,0:11:14.511
by planting bee-friendly flowers.

0:11:14.511,0:11:17.249
Paris has been a terrific model for urban beekeeping.

0:11:17.249,0:11:19.799
They've had hives on the rooftop of their opera house

0:11:19.799,0:11:22.735
for many years now, and that's what really got people started, thinking,

0:11:22.735,0:11:26.203
"Wow, we can do this, and we should do this."

0:11:26.203,0:11:29.036
Also in London, and in Europe across the board,

0:11:29.036,0:11:32.288
they're very advanced in their use of green rooftops

0:11:32.288,0:11:34.786
and integrating beehives,

0:11:34.786,0:11:37.967
and I'll show you an ending note here.

0:11:37.967,0:11:40.042
I would like to encourage you to open your mind.

0:11:40.042,0:11:43.203
What can you do to save the bees or to help them

0:11:43.203,0:11:46.994
or to think of sustainable cities in the future?

0:11:46.994,0:11:48.964
Well, really, just change your perspective.

0:11:48.964,0:11:50.938
Try to understand that bees are very important.

0:11:50.938,0:11:53.349
A bee isn't going to sting you if you see it.

0:11:53.349,0:11:56.663
The bee dies. Honeybees die when they sting,

0:11:56.663,0:11:59.105
so they don't want to do it either. (Laughter)

0:11:59.105,0:12:03.195
It's nothing to panic about. They're all over the city.

0:12:03.195,0:12:05.297
You could even get your own hive if you want.

0:12:05.297,0:12:07.025
There are great resources available,

0:12:07.025,0:12:09.976
and there are even companies that will help get you set up and mentor you

0:12:09.981,0:12:13.107
and it's important for our educational system in the world

0:12:13.107,0:12:15.793
for students to learn about agriculture worldwide

0:12:15.793,0:12:19.628
such as this little girl, who, again, is not even getting stung.

0:12:19.628,0:12:21.982
Thank you. (Applause)