Washington Whispers

Michelle Obama's Bees Didn't Swarm the Media

By Paul Bedard

April 19, 2009 RSS Feed Print

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

The buzz around the East Wing this week was about a bee swarm that landed on the North Lawn, leading many to fear that the hive in Michelle Obama's garden had flown the coop. But beekeeper and White House carpenter Charlie Brandts tells Whispers that the swarm most likely wasn't from the hive he installed in the first lady's South Lawn garden. In fact, he calls his hive "just right" and not ripe to swarm. As for the ball of honeybees that landed near the news cameras by the northwest gate, Brandts caught them in a cardboard box and gave them a new home.

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White House,
Michelle Obama

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It is an insult to all beekeepers to call Michelle Obama a beekeeper. She may be a beekeeper keeper, but she does not keep bees. Has she went out to the hive and studied the larva or egg patern that the queen has left behind to indicate her condition. Has she dusted the little darlings with powderd sugar and timed their return to the hive. Has she considered the occasional sting an honor and part of her duty as a beekeeper.

Just a Beekeeper of TX 5:40PM January 12, 2011

If you are a beekeeper, as you claim, you should support

fellow beekeepers. The fact that a Bylaw or ordinance

prohibits beekeeping does little to change the fact that bees are kept in urban settings throughout the country without incident.

Media attention such as this serves only to increase the

possibility that unreasonable and unenforcable bylaws and

ordinances such as this will be struck down.

To suggest that only the rich and powerful can get around bylaws belies the fact that dozens of hives exist in BC and

what children learn from interacting with them is of far greater

benefit than the"bad example" you claim is set for them by

a simple bylaw violation. Gibe you head a shake and have some honey!

Both

Scott of DC 5:51PM April 09, 2010

the section continues:

904.2 The provisions of this section shall not apply to bees confined in hives, or to bees kept on property that is enclosed so that the bees cannot stray from the property.

A wannabee-keeper of VA 3:54PM August 24, 2009

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