City Beekeeping

Many beekeepers have bee hives in their back yards. Some bees are even kept on city roof-tops. Bees can travel several miles to collect nectar and pollen, so they do not need flowering plants close by. Most suburbs have plenty of flowers, and bees can make a good crop of local honey.
City beekeepers must take special care so their bees do not become a nuisance to neighbors, or even appear to be a problem. We all want good neighborly relations!
With so much buzz about colony collapse disorder (CCD), even those who live far from the farms and orchards are pitching in to beef up the nation's bee populations (while reaping some sweet rewards for themselves). This is city beekeeping!
City beekeeping is technically keeping bees in the city, that is growing and managing a beekeeping hobby or business in the city.

But is it wise to invite bees into the city limits? Neighbors might have something to say when they see a full-blown hive on an adjacent rooftop or in a neighbor's backyard. YES! because "Honeybees are not interested in you. They're interested in nectar."
Relatively few communities in the U.S. outlaw beekeeping. However, most have "nuisance laws" that are intended to outlaw things that most people would find objectionable, such as a barking dog or a stinky smell. Some communities have laws that put practical constraints on beekeeping, such as limits on numbers of hives and a requirement that the beekeeper provide water for the bees.
There will be bees in our cities and towns as long as there are nectar and pollen-producing plants. Outlawing beekeeping tends to replace domesticated bees with wild bees, but does not make bees go away.
Prospective City beekeepers should learn about legal restrictions before embarking into city beekeeping. Regardless of the law, a good city beekeeper does not allow his bees to annoy neighbors. Sharing a jar or two of honey helps too!
There is also a question of just how many bees a concrete jungle can support. "You can have too many hives in an area [where] there's not enough [food] to support a colony," one city beekeeper might say. But in leaner times, city beekeepers can supplement hives with sugar water and protein supplements, which are "like a PowerBar for a human,". Winter is a concern for beekeepers in northern climes (urban, suburban and otherwise) set on keeping their bees at home year-round. Those persons practicing city beekeeping points out that for their bees to survive a Massachusetts winter, they make sure that each hive has at least 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of honey to eat.

Bees might be adept airborne navigators, but they aren't necessarily built to live high in the sky. City beekeepers often wonders if high winds and the chill might be a drain on bee energy for hives planted on top of tall city buildings. Although not all practitioners of city beekeeping know exactly how high they can thrive, some says the highest hive they’ve ever worked with was six stories up—and the bees didn't seem to mind.