Nick Hoefly of Astor Apiaries explains the importance of bees for our ecosystem and talks to Cheddar News' Michelle Castillo about what you can do if you're nervous around them.

<div class="block">Celebrating the master pollinators: bees. Nick Hoefly of Astor Apiaries explains the importance of bees for our ecosystem and talks to Cheddar News&#39; Michelle Castillo about what you can do if you&#39;re nervous around them.</div>

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Astor Apiaries Explains Why Bees Are So Critical and What to Do So You Don't Get Stung

To celebrate the work of the pollinators who are a crucial part of our food chain. Of course, Michelle Castillo is on the scene at a bee colony in my hometown of Queens. Good morning, Michelle. Good morning. I'm here at as apiaries with the owner, Nick Haley. So, Nick, let's crack open this hive. Right. Tell me more about how you started as apiaries. So I got into beekeeping as a hobby and it's one of those hobbies that if you let it, it will just grow out of control. The more that people found out that I had honey, the more they wanted to buy it. And it was just a real easy way to pay for the hobby while doing something that I really enjoyed doing. Now, this is just one of the hives that you tend around New York City. How many hives are there around New York City? Just in this urban area that you can estimate there are hundreds, you're never too far away from a hive no matter where you go around New York City. I am responsible for about 60 of those hives at about 20 different locations around the city. So in a typical hive, which is the one stack, if I understand it, how many bees live in? One hive? These hives are a bit small. So they're housing anywhere from about 25 to 30,000 bees. Some of the larger hives that we have can get up to 50,000 bees. Yeah. If you look around me, there's different hives. We haven't cracked open. We're letting them do their thing. So let's pull out one of the screens and tell me a little bit more about what's going on there. So we're, we're right at the end of our nectar flow season, which means that we're going to be harvesting soon. And so this is actually a frame full of honey. These bees are busy turning nectar ripening it into honey and then capping it, which is this beautiful flat part at the top there. And what we will eventually do is come in, we will harvest these frames, cut open the combs and extract all that honey and bottle it for our customers. And how often do bees make honey? Get a full frame? I guess here in the city, we only have really one major nectar flow. So we're doing this once a year. But if you're lucky to be in a more suburban or rural area, you might get a few nectar flows a year. So you might be doing it three or four times a year. Now, I'm not getting stung right now. And I have to admit I'm a little scared of bees. So this was a fun assignment. But tell me more about why I'm not being stung. I think a lot of people fear that when they see a bee, they're automatically going to get stung. Sure. So, honey bees and bees in general really have no interest in people. They're vegetarians, they eat pollen and nectar. So we don't have any of that stuff that they want. Typically when I'm getting stung, if I am ever getting stung in the hive, it's because of something that I've done, I bumped a frame or I've made a bee feel threatened and then they sting me. But generally you can just stand there and as long as you're not swatting at them or kind of moving erratically, they will absolutely just fly right around you. Yeah, we didn't even smoke these bees. We just opened their home and started pulling out frames. Exactly. So, but if you are scared of bees, what are some tips to kind of keep them from giving you that little sting? Sure. So, especially if you're not wearing a full set up, you can totally just stand still. If you have a bee buzzing around you, they may have just mistaken you for a flower, they will eventually move on when they realize that you don't have anything for them. When you do start swatting or running or jumping around. That's when they do become a little more interested in you as a possible threat. The other thing is if you are wearing some baggier clothes, if they do happen to try to sting your clothes, it won't get through to your skin. And typically if you wear lighter colors, you won't have, they won't be as attracted to you as if you're wearing darker browns or blacks. Now, I'm going to give this frame back to you. But if you want to try some as apiaries, honey, where can you get it? You can go to our website at astra apiaries dot com. You can also go to our new storefront in Astoria Queens called the Honey House at Astra Apiaries where we have our honey plus a whole catalog of other different types of honey. You can try, well, coming up next, we're going to try some of this amazing honey fresh from the hive fresh from the frame, I should say and we're going to learn all about some cocktails you can make with this drink with this honey because it's all about being the bees.