Urban Garden Profile: Lyndon Fenlon UrbanHoneyCo

Lyndon Fenlon runs the urbanhoneyco.com in Melbourne, Australia where he is growing bees to make honey that can be delivered hyperlocally. Lyndon is on my list for one of the most ethical and sustainable business models I've ever seen... um list of well you get it. Lyndon is the beekeeper poster child of the early 21 Century. He gave us an interview and spoke kindly of his love for bees in a way that was super funny and touching. He answers the question of colony collapse disorder (CCD) head on.

Bryan Ogden: In your humble opinion what are the major reasons for colony collapse disorder?

Lyndon Fenlon: A lot of things have been lumped under the same heading of CCD but I'll talk about the original condition I first heard of and that was the one where hives rapidly emptied of bees or died off extremely quickly and remained untouched even by the usual creatures that move in to clean up abandoned hives.
My initial thought was that it must be viral but then agricultural chemicals soon became my most dominant thought. It's recently been proven that it's down to neonicotinoids. 

Bryan Ogden: What can we do to stop this travesty from continuing?? 

Lyndon Fenlon  I don't like to prescribe advice generally as there is a much bigger picture here. Not using these neonicotinoids would be a good start but then would that lead to a drastic collapse of crops..? I'm sure some would argue that it would but I don't know enough about crops. personally I wouldn't use anything at all on anything I grew.
Extremely large scale mono crops seems to be not a good idea to me, the more things are forced into order the more you have to use things to enforce it. I lean more towards leaving things natural.

Bryan Ogden: Whats the sweetest honey you have ever ever tasted?

Lyndon Fenlon A coastal honey from a friend of mine here in Victoria, couldn't tell you exactly what was in it as it was a mixture of stuff but it was wonderful. Started with a delicate sweetness followed by a light floral zing and ended with a mellow fruitiness. 

Bryan Ogden: What are the most interesting type of bees and why? 

Lyndon Fenlon  I'm pretty much enamoured with the Apis mellifera, the way they think as a whole, their tenacity and their ingenuity. 

Bryan Ogden: Whats the worst you have ever been stung? 

Lyndon Fenlon: over 50 times on the ankle, it was the first time I'd ever been stung and had to have injections for days after, I'm convinced it's what set up my current allergy to bee stings. 

Bryan: What are your top 10 favorite things about bees?

Lyndon: Just 10? Where do I start.
Their intelligence
ability to recognise faces
the huge benefit to the world they bring comparitive to their small size
their selflessness
the stories they tell me
the distances they travel
their engineering abilities
their humm
their ability to learn the communication of other related species of bees
their homing instincts

Whew, hope this helps.
Time to cut some labels