This Week in the Family Garden: Pollinator Pals!

Posted in Programs and Events on September 5 2012, by Matt Newman

So you don’t have a back yard, a rooftop apartment in Brooklyn, or even a couple of bee suits and a smoking can. Not a problem! For kids (or parents!) who are bursting with questions over the city’s biggest agricultural excitement since fire escapes first met tomato plants, you won’t need any of the above to pick up the basics.

While the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden is home to two active beehives, Assistant Manager Annie Novak and her team have put together the full beekeeping kit–sans bugs–for those who’d rather go to the open house without the tenants in attendance, so to speak. Apiculture at its easiest! And we won’t be sparing with the sweets, either; if you’ve ever wondered how flower choice affects what goes into the jar, we’ll be offering tastes of the many different types of honey that a healthy hive can produce.

But bees aren’t the only ones spreading the pollen around, as monarch butterflies would be quick to remind us (if they were capable of indignation). Now is the season for the more colorful of nature’s pollinators to migrate back to Mexico, so you’re likely to learn a bit about these fluttering travelers as they make their way through the Family Garden.

Because the bees and the butterflies have their own schedules to keep, be sure to take advantage of Pollinator Pals at the NYBG while it lasts, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. daily until October 5!