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Red Bees of Red Hook (and Gov­er­nors Island)

Dec 2, 2010 9:27 pm

[cap­tion id=“attachment_4047” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“The Added Val­ue Farm on Gov­er­nors Island is rel­a­tive­ly qui­et this time of year but is home to many fruits, veg­eta­bles, flow­ers and bees dur­ing the warmer months.”][/​caption]

This Mon­day’s New York Times had an arti­cle about Brook­lyn bees (and their hon­ey) mys­te­ri­ous­ly turn­ing red. These are the same bees that bee­keep­er Cerise Mayo raised on the Added Val­ue Farm on Gov­er­nors Island this year. Many won­dered what it was that was caus­ing this change? Were they try­ing to blend in with the red ham­mocks, Adiron­dack chairs and cabanas at Pic­nic Point?

It turns out a local maraschi­no cher­ry fac­to­ry was the cul­prit. The bees had trav­elled to the fac­to­ry to enjoy the sweet juice, result­ing in the red pig­men­ta­tion seen in their bod­ies and hon­ey. You can read all about it here.