1 00:00:01,552 --> 00:00:04,266 This man is wearing what we call 2 00:00:04,266 --> 00:00:07,036 a bee beard. (Laughter) 3 00:00:07,036 --> 00:00:08,485 A beard full of bees. 4 00:00:08,485 --> 00:00:11,728 Now, this is what many of you might picture 5 00:00:11,728 --> 00:00:14,701 when you think about honeybees, maybe insects, 6 00:00:14,701 --> 00:00:17,789 or maybe anything that has more legs than two. 7 00:00:17,789 --> 00:00:20,447 And let me start by telling you, I gotcha. 8 00:00:20,447 --> 00:00:24,928 I understand that. But, there are many things to know, 9 00:00:24,928 --> 00:00:27,608 and I want you to open your minds here, 10 00:00:27,608 --> 00:00:31,098 keep them open, and change your perspective about honeybees. 11 00:00:31,098 --> 00:00:34,063 Notice that this man is not getting stung. 12 00:00:34,063 --> 00:00:37,507 He probably has a queen bee tied to his chin, 13 00:00:37,507 --> 00:00:39,626 and the other bees are attracted to it. 14 00:00:39,626 --> 00:00:43,662 So this really demonstrates our relationship with honeybees, 15 00:00:43,662 --> 00:00:47,430 and that goes deep back for thousands of years. 16 00:00:47,430 --> 00:00:50,592 We're very co-evolved, because we depend on bees 17 00:00:50,592 --> 00:00:53,552 for pollination and, even more recently, 18 00:00:53,552 --> 00:00:55,376 as an economic commodity. 19 00:00:55,376 --> 00:00:58,176 Many of you may have heard that honeybees are disappearing, 20 00:00:58,176 --> 00:01:00,753 not just dying, but they're gone. 21 00:01:00,753 --> 00:01:02,555 We don't even find dead bodies. 22 00:01:02,555 --> 00:01:04,926 This is called colony collapse disorder, 23 00:01:04,926 --> 00:01:07,138 and it's bizarre. Researchers around the globe 24 00:01:07,138 --> 00:01:09,584 still do not know what's causing it, 25 00:01:09,584 --> 00:01:12,154 but what we do know is that, with the declining numbers 26 00:01:12,154 --> 00:01:16,391 of bees, the costs of over 130 fruit and vegetable crops 27 00:01:16,391 --> 00:01:21,398 that we rely on for food is going up in price. 28 00:01:21,398 --> 00:01:25,156 So honeybees are important for their role in the economy 29 00:01:25,156 --> 00:01:27,181 as well as in agriculture. 30 00:01:27,181 --> 00:01:29,000 Here you can see some pictures of what are called 31 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,689 green roofs, or urban agriculture. 32 00:01:31,689 --> 00:01:33,967 We're familiar with the image on the left that shows 33 00:01:33,967 --> 00:01:36,751 a local neighborhood garden in the South End. 34 00:01:36,751 --> 00:01:39,542 That's where I call home. I have a beehive in the backyard. 35 00:01:39,542 --> 00:01:41,961 And perhaps a green roof in the future, 36 00:01:41,961 --> 00:01:43,892 when we're further utilizing urban areas, 37 00:01:43,892 --> 00:01:47,350 where there are stacks of garden spaces. 38 00:01:47,350 --> 00:01:50,703 Check out this image above the orange line in Boston. 39 00:01:50,703 --> 00:01:54,180 Try to spot the beehive. It's there. 40 00:01:54,180 --> 00:01:56,877 It's on the rooftop, right on the corner there, 41 00:01:56,877 --> 00:01:59,270 and it's been there for a couple of years now. 42 00:01:59,270 --> 00:02:02,522 The way that urban beekeeping currently operates 43 00:02:02,522 --> 00:02:05,113 is that the beehives are quite hidden, 44 00:02:05,113 --> 00:02:07,140 and it's not because they need to be. 45 00:02:07,140 --> 00:02:10,117 It's just because people are uncomfortable with the idea, 46 00:02:10,117 --> 00:02:13,791 and that's why I want you today to try to think about this, 47 00:02:13,791 --> 00:02:16,074 think about the benefits of bees in cities 48 00:02:16,074 --> 00:02:18,333 and why they really are a terrific thing. 49 00:02:18,333 --> 00:02:21,303 Let me give you a brief rundown on how pollination works. 50 00:02:21,303 --> 00:02:23,886 So we know flowers, we know fruits and vegetables, 51 00:02:23,886 --> 00:02:27,092 even some alfalfa in hay that the livestock 52 00:02:27,092 --> 00:02:29,555 for the meats that we eat, rely on pollinators, 53 00:02:29,555 --> 00:02:32,988 but you've got male and female parts to a plant here, 54 00:02:32,988 --> 00:02:35,878 and basically pollinators are attracted to plants 55 00:02:35,878 --> 00:02:38,905 for their nectar, and in the process, 56 00:02:38,905 --> 00:02:42,280 a bee will visit some flowers and pick up some pollen, 57 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:45,712 or that male kind of sperm counterpart, along the way, 58 00:02:45,712 --> 00:02:48,330 and then travel to different flowers, and eventually 59 00:02:48,330 --> 00:02:51,449 an apple, in this case, will be produced. 60 00:02:51,449 --> 00:02:53,716 You can see the orientation. The stem is down. 61 00:02:53,716 --> 00:02:56,670 The blossom end has fallen off by the time we eat it, 62 00:02:56,670 --> 00:02:59,528 but that's a basic overview of how pollination works. 63 00:02:59,528 --> 00:03:02,400 And let's think about urban living, not today, 64 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,265 and not in the past, but what about in a hundred years? 65 00:03:05,265 --> 00:03:09,203 What's it gonna look like? We have huge grand challenges 66 00:03:09,203 --> 00:03:13,133 these days of habitat loss. We have more and more people, 67 00:03:13,133 --> 00:03:16,494 billions of people, in 100 years, God knows how many people, 68 00:03:16,494 --> 00:03:19,858 and how little space there will be to fit all of them, 69 00:03:19,858 --> 00:03:23,280 so we need to change the way that we see cities, and 70 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:26,643 looking at this picture on the left of New York City today, 71 00:03:26,643 --> 00:03:28,510 you can see how gray and brown it is. 72 00:03:28,510 --> 00:03:32,041 We have tar paper on the rooftops that bounces heat back 73 00:03:32,041 --> 00:03:34,077 into the atmosphere, 74 00:03:34,077 --> 00:03:36,412 contributing to global climate change, no doubt. 75 00:03:36,412 --> 00:03:38,912 What about in 100 years, if we have green rooftops 76 00:03:38,912 --> 00:03:42,075 everywhere, and gardening, and we create our own crops 77 00:03:42,075 --> 00:03:45,878 right in the cities? We save on the costs of transportation, 78 00:03:45,878 --> 00:03:49,974 we save on a healthier diet, and we also educate 79 00:03:49,974 --> 00:03:51,676 and create new jobs locally. 80 00:03:51,676 --> 00:03:56,342 We need bees for the future of our cities and urban living. 81 00:03:56,342 --> 00:03:59,726 Here's some data that we collected through our company 82 00:03:59,726 --> 00:04:02,628 with Best Bees, where we deliver, install and manage 83 00:04:02,628 --> 00:04:04,871 honeybee hives for anybody who wants them, 84 00:04:04,871 --> 00:04:08,388 in the city, in the countryside, and we introduce honeybees, 85 00:04:08,388 --> 00:04:11,247 and the idea of beekeeping in your own backyard or rooftop 86 00:04:11,247 --> 00:04:13,728 or fire escape, for even that matter, 87 00:04:13,728 --> 00:04:16,502 and seeing how simple it is and how possible it is. 88 00:04:16,502 --> 00:04:18,634 There's a counterintuitive trend that we noticed 89 00:04:18,634 --> 00:04:22,077 in these numbers. So let's look at the first metric here, 90 00:04:22,077 --> 00:04:23,477 overwintering survival. 91 00:04:23,477 --> 00:04:26,302 Now this has been a huge problem for many years, 92 00:04:26,302 --> 00:04:30,362 basically since the late 1980s, when the varroa mite came 93 00:04:30,362 --> 00:04:33,738 and brought many different viruses, bacteria 94 00:04:33,738 --> 00:04:35,542 and fungal diseases with it. 95 00:04:35,542 --> 00:04:37,291 Overwintering success is hard, 96 00:04:37,291 --> 00:04:39,584 and that's when most of the colonies are lost, 97 00:04:39,584 --> 00:04:42,250 and we found that in the cities, bees are surviving 98 00:04:42,250 --> 00:04:44,598 better than they are in the country. 99 00:04:44,598 --> 00:04:46,826 A bit counterintuitive, right? 100 00:04:46,826 --> 00:04:48,908 We think, oh, bees, countryside, agriculture, 101 00:04:48,908 --> 00:04:51,135 but that's not what the bees are showing. 102 00:04:51,135 --> 00:04:53,284 The bees like it in the city. (Laughter) 103 00:04:53,284 --> 00:04:56,431 Furthermore, they also produce more honey. 104 00:04:56,431 --> 00:04:59,000 The urban honey is delicious. 105 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,097 The bees in Boston on the rooftop of the Seaport Hotel, 106 00:05:02,097 --> 00:05:04,569 where we have hundreds of thousands of bees 107 00:05:04,569 --> 00:05:06,072 flying overheard right now 108 00:05:06,072 --> 00:05:08,377 that I'm sure none of you noticed when we walked by, 109 00:05:08,377 --> 00:05:10,687 are going to all of the local community gardens 110 00:05:10,687 --> 00:05:13,086 and making delicious, healthy honey 111 00:05:13,086 --> 00:05:16,114 that just tastes like the flowers in our city. 112 00:05:16,114 --> 00:05:20,901 So the yield for urban hives, in terms of honey production, 113 00:05:20,901 --> 00:05:24,016 is higher as well as the overwintering survival, 114 00:05:24,016 --> 00:05:25,390 compared to rural areas. 115 00:05:25,390 --> 00:05:27,392 Again, a bit counterintuitive. 116 00:05:27,392 --> 00:05:30,713 And looking back historically at the timeline 117 00:05:30,713 --> 00:05:34,989 of honeybee health, we can go back to the year 950 and see 118 00:05:34,989 --> 00:05:38,037 that there was also a great mortality of bees in Ireland. 119 00:05:38,037 --> 00:05:41,188 So the problems of bees today isn't necessarily 120 00:05:41,188 --> 00:05:43,813 something new. It has been happening 121 00:05:43,813 --> 00:05:45,880 since over a thousand years ago, 122 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:49,577 but what we don't really notice are these problems in cities. 123 00:05:49,577 --> 00:05:51,605 So one thing I want to encourage you to think about 124 00:05:51,605 --> 00:05:54,007 is the idea of what an urban island is. 125 00:05:54,007 --> 00:05:57,403 You think in the city maybe the temperature's warmer. 126 00:05:57,403 --> 00:05:58,982 Why are bees doing better in the city? 127 00:05:58,982 --> 00:06:01,654 This is a big question now to help us understand 128 00:06:01,654 --> 00:06:03,975 why they should be in the city. 129 00:06:03,975 --> 00:06:05,997 Perhaps there's more pollen in the city. 130 00:06:05,997 --> 00:06:08,213 With the trains coming in to urban hubs, they can 131 00:06:08,213 --> 00:06:10,792 carry pollen with them, very light pollen, 132 00:06:10,792 --> 00:06:13,129 and it's just a big supermarket in the city. 133 00:06:13,129 --> 00:06:16,956 A lot of linden trees live along the railroad tracks. 134 00:06:16,956 --> 00:06:19,722 Perhaps there are fewer pesticides in the cities 135 00:06:19,722 --> 00:06:21,940 than there are in [rural] areas. 136 00:06:21,940 --> 00:06:24,792 Perhaps there are other things that we're just not thinking about yet, 137 00:06:24,792 --> 00:06:27,399 but that's one idea to think about, urban islands. 138 00:06:27,399 --> 00:06:31,323 And colony collapse disorder is not the only thing 139 00:06:31,323 --> 00:06:34,225 affecting honeybees. Honeybees are dying, 140 00:06:34,225 --> 00:06:37,929 and it's a huge, huge grand challenge of our time. 141 00:06:37,929 --> 00:06:40,401 What you can see up here is a map of the world, 142 00:06:40,401 --> 00:06:43,473 and we're tracking the spread of this varroa mite. 143 00:06:43,473 --> 00:06:46,161 Now, the varroa mite is what changed the game 144 00:06:46,161 --> 00:06:49,016 in beekeeping, and you can see, at the top right, 145 00:06:49,016 --> 00:06:52,279 the years are changing, we're coming up to modern times, 146 00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:54,609 and you can see the spread of the varroa mite 147 00:06:54,609 --> 00:06:57,260 from the early 1900s through now. 148 00:06:57,260 --> 00:07:00,211 It's 1968, and we're pretty much covering Asia. 149 00:07:00,211 --> 00:07:04,273 1971, we saw it spread to Europe and South America, 150 00:07:04,273 --> 00:07:08,661 and then, when we get to the 1980s, 151 00:07:08,661 --> 00:07:12,895 and specifically to 1987, the varroa mite finally came 152 00:07:12,895 --> 00:07:15,277 to North America and to the United States, 153 00:07:15,277 --> 00:07:17,733 and that is when the game changed 154 00:07:17,733 --> 00:07:20,414 for honeybees in the United States. 155 00:07:20,414 --> 00:07:22,502 Many of us will remember our childhood growing up, 156 00:07:22,502 --> 00:07:24,728 maybe you got stung by a bee, you saw bees on flowers. 157 00:07:24,728 --> 00:07:28,666 Think of the kids today. Their childhood's a bit different. 158 00:07:28,666 --> 00:07:30,590 They don't experience this. 159 00:07:30,590 --> 00:07:33,090 The bees just aren't around anymore. 160 00:07:33,090 --> 00:07:36,530 So we need bees and they're disappearing and it's a big problem. 161 00:07:36,530 --> 00:07:38,235 What can we do here? 162 00:07:38,235 --> 00:07:40,800 So, what I do is honeybee research. 163 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:42,893 I got my Ph.D. studying honeybee health. 164 00:07:42,893 --> 00:07:46,358 I started in 2005 studying honeybees. 165 00:07:46,358 --> 00:07:48,700 In 2006, honeybees started disappearing, 166 00:07:48,700 --> 00:07:51,061 so suddenly, like, this little nerd kid 167 00:07:51,061 --> 00:07:53,678 going to school working with bugs — (Laughter) — 168 00:07:53,678 --> 00:07:55,771 became very relevant in the world. 169 00:07:55,771 --> 00:07:56,852 And it worked out that way. 170 00:07:56,852 --> 00:08:00,851 So my research focuses on ways to make bees healthier. 171 00:08:00,851 --> 00:08:03,642 I don't research what's killing the bees, per se. 172 00:08:03,642 --> 00:08:05,825 I'm not one of the many researchers around the world 173 00:08:05,825 --> 00:08:08,896 who's looking at the effects of pesticides or diseases 174 00:08:08,896 --> 00:08:11,448 or habitat loss and poor nutrition on bees. 175 00:08:11,448 --> 00:08:13,441 We're looking at ways to make bees healthier 176 00:08:13,441 --> 00:08:17,072 through vaccines, through yogurt, like probiotics, 177 00:08:17,072 --> 00:08:21,872 and other types of therapies in ways that can be fed orally to bees, 178 00:08:21,872 --> 00:08:24,907 and this process is so easy, even a 7-year-old can do it. 179 00:08:24,907 --> 00:08:27,267 You just mix up some pollen, sugar and water, 180 00:08:27,267 --> 00:08:29,069 and whatever active ingredient you want to put in, 181 00:08:29,069 --> 00:08:31,267 and you just give it right to the bees. No chemicals involved, 182 00:08:31,267 --> 00:08:33,437 just immune boosters. 183 00:08:33,437 --> 00:08:35,637 Humans think about our own health in a prospective way. 184 00:08:35,637 --> 00:08:38,297 We exercise, we eat healthy, we take vitamins. 185 00:08:38,297 --> 00:08:41,340 Why don't we think about honeybees in that same type of way? 186 00:08:41,340 --> 00:08:43,906 Bring them to areas where they're thriving 187 00:08:43,906 --> 00:08:47,342 and try to make them healthier before they get sick. 188 00:08:47,342 --> 00:08:51,531 I spent many years in grad school trying to poke bees and do vaccines 189 00:08:51,531 --> 00:08:54,873 with needles. (Laughter) Like, years, 190 00:08:54,873 --> 00:08:57,175 years at the bench, "Oh my gosh, it's 3 a.m. 191 00:08:57,175 --> 00:08:58,526 and I'm still pricking bees." (Laughter) 192 00:08:58,526 --> 00:09:02,400 And then one day I said, "Why don't we just do an oral vaccine?" 193 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:07,048 It's like, "Ugh," so that's what we do. (Laughter) 194 00:09:07,048 --> 00:09:10,236 I'd love to share with you some images of urban beehives, 195 00:09:10,236 --> 00:09:12,718 because they can be anything. 196 00:09:12,718 --> 00:09:14,621 I mean, really open your mind with this. 197 00:09:14,621 --> 00:09:16,795 You can paint a hive to match your home. 198 00:09:16,795 --> 00:09:20,165 You can hide a hive inside your home. 199 00:09:20,165 --> 00:09:21,977 These are three hives on the rooftop 200 00:09:21,977 --> 00:09:24,088 of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, 201 00:09:24,088 --> 00:09:26,548 and they're beautiful here. I mean, we matched 202 00:09:26,548 --> 00:09:29,229 the new color of the inside of their rooms to do 203 00:09:29,229 --> 00:09:32,466 some type of a stained wood with blue for their sheets, 204 00:09:32,466 --> 00:09:35,485 and these bees are terrific, and they also will use 205 00:09:35,485 --> 00:09:38,091 herbs that are growing in the garden. 206 00:09:38,091 --> 00:09:41,190 That's what the chefs go to to use for their cooking, 207 00:09:41,190 --> 00:09:43,069 and the honey -- they do live events -- 208 00:09:43,069 --> 00:09:45,207 they'll use that honey at their bars. 209 00:09:45,207 --> 00:09:47,827 Honey is a great nutritional substitute for regular sugar 210 00:09:47,827 --> 00:09:49,954 because there are different types of sugars in there. 211 00:09:49,954 --> 00:09:52,331 We also have a classroom hives project, 212 00:09:52,331 --> 00:09:54,983 where -- this is a nonprofit venture -- 213 00:09:54,983 --> 00:09:58,100 we're spreading the word around the world for how 214 00:09:58,100 --> 00:10:00,385 honeybee hives can be taken into the classroom 215 00:10:00,385 --> 00:10:02,691 or into the museum setting, behind glass, 216 00:10:02,691 --> 00:10:05,099 and used as an educational tool. 217 00:10:05,099 --> 00:10:06,723 This hive that you see here has been 218 00:10:06,723 --> 00:10:09,274 in Fenway High School for many years now. 219 00:10:09,274 --> 00:10:11,233 The bees fly right into the outfield of Fenway Park. 220 00:10:11,233 --> 00:10:13,188 Nobody notices it. If you're not a flower, 221 00:10:13,188 --> 00:10:15,809 these bees do not care about you. (Laughter) 222 00:10:15,809 --> 00:10:18,180 They don't. They don't. They'll say, 223 00:10:18,180 --> 00:10:21,091 "S'cuse me, flying around." (Laughter) 224 00:10:21,091 --> 00:10:23,654 Some other images here in telling a part of the story 225 00:10:23,654 --> 00:10:26,292 that really made urban beekeeping terrific is 226 00:10:26,292 --> 00:10:29,656 in New York City, beekeeping was illegal until 2010. 227 00:10:29,656 --> 00:10:32,993 That's a big problem, because what's going to pollinate 228 00:10:32,993 --> 00:10:36,417 all of the gardens and the produce locally? Hands? 229 00:10:36,417 --> 00:10:39,773 I mean, locally in Boston, there is a terrific company 230 00:10:39,773 --> 00:10:42,178 called Green City Growers, and they are going 231 00:10:42,178 --> 00:10:45,689 and pollinating their squash crops by hand with Q-Tips, 232 00:10:45,689 --> 00:10:48,243 and if they miss that three day window, there's no fruit. 233 00:10:48,243 --> 00:10:51,146 Their clients aren't happy, and people go hungry. 234 00:10:51,146 --> 00:10:53,014 So this is important. 235 00:10:53,014 --> 00:10:55,121 We have also some images of honey from Brooklyn. 236 00:10:55,121 --> 00:10:57,073 Now, this was a mystery in the New York Times 237 00:10:57,073 --> 00:10:58,921 where the honey was very red, and the 238 00:10:58,921 --> 00:11:00,445 New York State forensics department came in 239 00:11:00,445 --> 00:11:03,047 and they actually did some science to match 240 00:11:03,047 --> 00:11:05,567 the red dye with that found 241 00:11:05,567 --> 00:11:08,818 in a maraschino cherry factory down the street. (Laughter) 242 00:11:08,818 --> 00:11:12,216 So you can tailor your honey to taste however you want 243 00:11:12,216 --> 00:11:14,511 by planting bee-friendly flowers. 244 00:11:14,511 --> 00:11:17,249 Paris has been a terrific model for urban beekeeping. 245 00:11:17,249 --> 00:11:19,799 They've had hives on the rooftop of their opera house 246 00:11:19,799 --> 00:11:22,735 for many years now, and that's what really got people started, thinking, 247 00:11:22,735 --> 00:11:26,203 "Wow, we can do this, and we should do this." 248 00:11:26,203 --> 00:11:29,036 Also in London, and in Europe across the board, 249 00:11:29,036 --> 00:11:32,288 they're very advanced in their use of green rooftops 250 00:11:32,288 --> 00:11:34,786 and integrating beehives, 251 00:11:34,786 --> 00:11:37,967 and I'll show you an ending note here. 252 00:11:37,967 --> 00:11:40,042 I would like to encourage you to open your mind. 253 00:11:40,042 --> 00:11:43,203 What can you do to save the bees or to help them 254 00:11:43,203 --> 00:11:46,994 or to think of sustainable cities in the future? 255 00:11:46,994 --> 00:11:48,964 Well, really, just change your perspective. 256 00:11:48,964 --> 00:11:50,938 Try to understand that bees are very important. 257 00:11:50,938 --> 00:11:53,349 A bee isn't going to sting you if you see it. 258 00:11:53,349 --> 00:11:56,663 The bee dies. Honeybees die when they sting, 259 00:11:56,663 --> 00:11:59,105 so they don't want to do it either. (Laughter) 260 00:11:59,105 --> 00:12:03,195 It's nothing to panic about. They're all over the city. 261 00:12:03,195 --> 00:12:05,297 You could even get your own hive if you want. 262 00:12:05,297 --> 00:12:07,025 There are great resources available, 263 00:12:07,025 --> 00:12:09,976 and there are even companies that will help get you set up and mentor you 264 00:12:09,981 --> 00:12:13,107 and it's important for our educational system in the world 265 00:12:13,107 --> 00:12:15,793 for students to learn about agriculture worldwide 266 00:12:15,793 --> 00:12:19,628 such as this little girl, who, again, is not even getting stung. 267 00:12:19,628 --> 00:12:21,982 Thank you. (Applause)