Homewood locals find self-sufficiency and health benefits in beekeeping

If Elizabeth Lawrence was correct in saying, “The hum of bees is the voice of the garden,” Homewood is full of humming. Specifically, after years of the Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Co-op, aka BUGS, empowering Homewood residents to grow their own fruits and vegetables, the co-op has widened its focus to include beekeeping.

Raqueeb Bey, executive director of the Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh, tells Pittsburgh City Paper that, as the vacant lot-turned-teaching farm, allowed them to share the practice with the community.

“Our farm is in Homewood, it is a food apartheid area, and we have the farm here, so why not?” Bey says. “We have the beekeeping classes, [and] we started doing chicken-keeping classes this season.”

Bey adds that, since bees can improve the neighborhood’s ecosystem in addition to the garden on Monticello Street, she sees it as a symbiotic relationship that can often go years without being tended to.

“We don’t call Homewood a food desert because deserts are beautiful and organic,” Bey says. “Homewood hasn’t had a grocery store since 1994, and that’s due to systemic issues. We have made progress, but you still see mostly Family Dollar stores and not stores that sell produce, and that tends to happen most where Black, brown, and underserved people are.”

According to a report released by Feeding America in 2024, 1 in 8 people are food insecure. In Hispanic neighborhoods, that rises to 1 in 5 people, and when it comes to Black neighborhoods, the figure increases to 1 in 3. With regard to Homewood, in addition to homegrown lettuce, basil, and tomatoes, honey that is locally grown, organic, and offers health benefits-such as being a cough suppressant and improving heart health gives Homewood a healthier option while encouraging them to bring beekeeping to their own backyards. There to share the virtues of beekeeping this coming May via biweekly classes is Maurice Wofford, who began beekeeping in 2018 while studying biodynamic agriculture.

Wofford came to BUGS when Bey’s colleague at the city’s Housing Opportunity Fund made the connection between him and the Co-Op. In the time he’s been with BUGS, Wofford says he’s always gotten a positive response from the community and adds that, since bees are responsible for so much of the world’s pollination, it’s a win for the neighborhood.

“It’s a zero-waste activity, and especially over there in Homewood, it’s just something different for people of all ages to witness, or possibly tak[e] interest in and get involved in just to [have] something different to do,” Wofford says.

In his classes, Wofford says that the best way to learn is by doing. With that in mind, he educates attendees on beekeeping by walking them through whatever he’s doing for the hives at that point in the season.

“Whatever I’m doing that day at any stage throughout the season is basically what I’ll teach and respond to any questions they have,” Wofford says. “Usually, I do a hive inspection, [so] I’ll sort of explain the behavior of the bees, the smell of their attack, what colors you want to wear, what colors you don’t want to wear. And just the benefits of all the things that can be derived from the hive, from the honey to the beeswax, and medicines that can be made from the hive, out of even dead bees.”

Bey and Wofford explain that, from March until December, the plan is to sell $20 jars of Homewood-harvested honey to anyone interested. Due to the different pollinators used, the honey has a distinctive copper color, and Bey looks forward to what the June hive harvest will bring. In between the sales and practical skills taught in the beekeeping classes, Wofford explains that when thinking of the enduring nature of honey and the teamwork that keeps hives going, there are a lot of positive lessons community members can learn from bees.

“Everything that any genuinely good-hearted person would want for the behavior of fellow human beings is exhibited in the behavior of honeybees, everything from their work ethic to their dedication to the protection of their queen, and just pretty much how they live in a true direct democracy,” Wofford says. “Each individual bee is responsible for one another and sometimes for their own demise. When a bee takes out the trash during the winter, it has to know in some way that that’ll be their final flight, but it’s what’s necessary for the survival of the colony.”

This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2025.