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DANBURY -- At first, Dick Marron was reluctant to talk about his bees. Marron lives in a neighborhood of homes separated by a few feet of yard space, not far from Main Street -- the urban heart of Danbury.If his neighbors learn about the bee hives he keeps outside his house, he worries they would blame him every time they got stung by a yellow jacket or wasp. But with a little persuading, he agreed to reveal his colonies. He keeps two large hives and three smaller "nucleus" hives on the side of his house. On this warm belstaff UK and sunny fall day, the bees were active, and the small openings at the bottom of the hives were jammed with worker bees heading in and out. In Newtown, Marron has beehives a stone's throw away from the town's iconic flagpole. He's proof that beekeeping and cities don't have to be mutually exclusive. It is possible for anyone willing to make an initial investment to see what all the buzz is about. Larger cities have embraced urban beekeeping. Last summer, New York City lifted its ban on porch and rooftop hives. On the west side of Chicago sits an apiary that provides queen bees to hive keepers in the city; skyscrapers are visible on the apiary's horizon. The Huffington Post reported that as bees disappear from French fields, hives are popping up on Parisian rooftops. A beehive can fit into any nook or cranny. Three years ago, Marron was called to a third-floor patio in Bridgeport. The elderly man living there told Belstaff Jackets Women Marron that he was dying, and he asked Marron to take his hive. "I was surprised he wanted to keep bees that badly," Marron said. "He didn't have much space."Danbury doesn't have zoning regulation that specifically addresses bee hives in residential areas. As long as honey is produced only for personal consumption and the hives don't infringe on neighbors' right to enjoy their property, it is legal, said Zoning Enforcement Officer Sean Hearty.Marron kept bees as a teenager in Newtown. He found a couple of hives in a barn and taught himself how to tend them. He sold honey, milk and butter to his neighbors.His 12-year-old grandson, Ryan, now earns spending money during the summer by selling honey. Marron gave Ryan two hives after he expressed interest.Marron stopped beekeeping when he was 17 and didn't pick it up again until he retired. He is now a Connecticut Beekeepers Association-certified master beekeeper and has written articles for all the national beekeeping magazines. Marron is a mentor to a Yonkers, N.Y., man, who began beekeeping when he retired. Richard Fisher keeps hives on a rooftop in downtown Yonkers. His bees collect pollen from neighbors' flower gardens, but also from the clover that grows in the grass. "When I started beekeeping here, there were no bees," Fisher said. "I looked around for a couple of years and never saw any. And now, my bees. I have a lot of bees and they get around."Wild and agricultural bee populations have been nearly wiped out due to colony collapse disorder, a disease of unknown origin. Coupled with a parasitic mite that has begun plaguing the bees, honey bee survival is entirely dependent belstaff sale on domesticated hives, Marron said. Although the honey bee is not native to North America, native wild bees could never pollinate the volume of plants that honey bees do. Truckloads of honey bees are shipped to California to pollinate almond fields, then Washington state to pollinate apples, and so on, Marron said. On average, these bees travel 12,500 miles a year. Getting a beehive and all the necessary equipment costs about $400, said Ed Chauvin, an amateur beekeeper in New Milford. If managed properly, a hive will produce more than 100 pounds of honey, he said. Set-up takes about five to eight hours, and beekeepers should plan on spending a half-hour a week on maintenance.At the end of the season, honey extraction takes three to five hours and winterizing the hive takes about two hours. And, honey bees are much friendlier than people think. "I've literally walked up and picked swarms off trees bare-handed and I get one bee sting," Chauvin said belstaff jackets. "And I have 10,000 to 12,000 bees in my hand."